Girls entering puberty by the age of six - But are drugs the answer
Some girls now enter puberty as early as six - with toxic chemicals widely held to blame. But are new drugs to hold back the years really the right answer?: [...] The normal age at which puberty starts in both boys and girls has dropped by about two years since the 19th century, to 14 for boys and 12 for girls. This is largely due to improved nutrition - onset of puberty is believed to be triggered by physical size. Another theory is that the epidemic of obesity is to blame. But modern social conditions may also be a contributory factor.
Research suggests that children from broken homes experience earlier puberty. The stress of family breakdown apparently alters the balance of growth hormones and other chemicals in the body, speeding up a child's physical development. Absent fathers may be another cause. American researchers have found that biological fathers send out chemical signals that inhibit their daughters' sexual maturity. Girls whose fathers had left home started their periods earlier. Early puberty has even been linked to watching too much television. A few years ago, Italian scientists found that children who watched three hours a day produced less of the sleep hormone melatonin - low levels of the hormone play an important role in the timing of puberty. But perhaps more worrying is the theory that it's exposure to environmental chemicals which is causing the drop in the age of puberty. These chemicals mimic the effect of hormones, disrupting the normal timing of sexual maturing. [...] In Britain, it is now estimated that up to at least one in six children under ten is affected. Indeed, there is a belief that schoolgirls as young as six are entering puberty. [...]
Meanwhile, as highlighted in a forthcoming BBC radio programme, a debate is raging in the medical profession about what should be done about this trend: should powerful drugs, normally used to treat cancer, be routinely prescribed to young children to block the hormonal changes taking place in their bodies; or should the medically defined normal age range for onset of puberty simply be adjusted downwards so that the increasing number of children reaching sexual maturity while still at primary school are no longer viewed as abnormal? Not surprisingly, the drugs industry supports the first approach. In the past four years, drug manufacturers have alighted on this expanding market for premature puberty treatment. The hormoneblocking drugs Gonapeptyl and Decapeptyl have been licensed for use in children, although the manufacturers refuse to say how widely they are being prescribed. [...]
A different approach is being suggested by experts such as the American Academy of Pediatrics which wants to lower the age of 'normal' puberty to as young as seven.
source: Article 'Girls entering puberty by the age of six - but are drugs the answer?' by Lois Rogers; www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=473584&in_page_id=1879; Daily Mail; 8 August 2007