Girls reach puberty earlier USA Today American girls are hitting puberty earlier than ever — a change that puts them at higher risk for behavioral problems as adolescents and breast cancer as adults, a new study shows. About 15 percent of 1,239 girls studied showed the beginnings of breast development at age 7, according to an article in last month’s Pediatrics journal. One in 10 white girls. twice as many as in a 1997 study, showed breast growth by that age, as did 23 percent of black girls and 15 percent of Hispanic girls. The median age of breast development fell from 10.9 years in 1991 to 9.9 in 2006, according to a Danish study published in Pediatrics last year. The new study doesn’t explain why girls are developing earlier, but it did find heavier girls with a higher bodymass index were more likely than others to begin puberty early, says pediatrician Frank Biro, director of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. A third of children are now overweight, and the early puberty trend could be related to the obesity epidemic, says Marcia Herman-Giddens of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. A growing number of researchers also are concerned about hormonedisrupting chemicals in the environment. Animal studies suggest that many environmental toxins can affect the age of puberty, although scientists aren’t yet sure exactly how they affect people. Suspect chemicals include pesticides used in farms and lawns, flame retardants found in furniture and electronics, and bisphenol A, or BPA, an estrogen-like ingredient found in plastic bottles and the linings of metal food and beverage cans, Biro says. Hitting puberty at a young age can be confusing and distressing, HermanGiddens says. It also increases the odds that girls will develop low self-esteem, eating disorders and depression.
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