Why are so many little girls going through puberty at such a young age?
Indications of something going terribly wrong on the hormonal front are the growing incidences of early puberty. A major published study in 1997 received national attention when it was reported that 1 out of 6 eight year old girls were going into puberty. By the age of 10, 50 percent of 10 year olds were getting their menstrual cycles. I have spoken to parents who are horrified to discover pubic hair and breast buds occurring in their five year daughter. Those are terrifying statistics. It is an established fact that the earlier a girl menstruates, the greater her life time risk of getting breast cancer. This is primarily due to long time exposure to estrogens. So, early puberty is a risk factor for breast cancer. Just look around these days. Many third grade girls have the breast development of 12 and 13 year olds. Not very long ago, the average age for a girl to begin menstruating was 14-17 years of age. There are other problems associated with this early puberty. These girls tend to
