Teenage girls start entering puberty at the age of six –

Experts say girls in America are experiencing puberty at a younger age than biologists expected, with the median age dropping to 10, and black girls going through this process on average a year earlier than their peers.

This phenomenon was first described by Dr. It was discovered by Marcia Herman-Giddens in the mid-1990s when she began collecting data on more than 17,000 girls.

He found that the average age of puberty dropped to ten, and some girls improved at age six.

While there’s no concrete reason to explain what’s going on, experts think the rise in obesity is due to a combination of the prevalence of chemicals used in plastics and the stress everyone feels in their lives, according to the New York Times.

Experts also warn that girls who enter this early puberty are at higher risk of developing more cancers and suffering from mental health problems such as depression or anxiety.

Herma Giddens, director of the child abuse team at Duke University in North Carolina at the time, noted that most abused children develop breasts by the age of six or seven.

Girls usually enter puberty during early puberty, those who begin to show signs of development around the age of ten are considered precocious.

She told the Times that the rapidly increasing number of girls was “not fair”. Since there was little data for his research, he began collecting data himself.

This led to a 1997 study that changed the field of medicine and doctors’ understanding of puberty in young women.

Extensive research has found that girls in the United States have puberty at about ten years old, beyond the previous average that the data showed. On average, the teenage age of girls seemed to increase by about three months every ten years.

Black girls, in particular, develop early, with an average puberty of nine years, according to recent research.

This early puberty can also carry serious risks. According to other studies, they are more likely to develop breast or uterine cancer later in life.

Girls facing precocious puberty have higher rates of depression, anxiety, and other possible mental health problems.

However, the discovery of this phenomenon was only the first step, as researchers now need to understand why.

Although there is no definitive investigation yet, experts speaking to the Times listed three possible causes that are being investigated.

The first is obesity, a growing problem in the United States with devastating effects on people of all ages.

Numerous studies have linked early childhood obesity to precocious puberty, although in some places there is no mechanism to explain this link.

A pediatric endocrinologist with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Dr. “I don’t think there’s much discussion these days about whether obesity significantly contributes to precocious puberty,” Natalie Shaw told the Times. there are others. factors. also.

“Obesity can’t explain all this…it happened too quickly.”

Dr. Marcia Herman-Giddens (pictured), a public health expert at UNC, first noticed this trend when she helped survivors of child abuse at Duke University.

According to official data, one in five children between the ages of two and 19 in the United States is obese, making childhood obesity a major problem in the United States.

Another possible factor is the prevalence of chemicals in plastics to which girls are exposed.

Phthalates are used in many plastics to make them more sustainable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC reports that chemicals that could be inhaled or consumed if they contaminate food or drink can disrupt the reproductive system of animals, although the effects on humans are unclear.

However, levels of the chemicals can be found in urine samples and can tell a scientist what level a person has been exposed to.

Researchers have noticed an increase in the levels of the chemicals in recent years, but there are still no studies linking them to precocious puberty, although many hormone experts think they may play a role.

There may also be more stress in the game. Experts already know that sexually abused girls are more likely to enter puberty early.

During the pandemic, doctors also noticed an increase in reports of precocious puberty among girls worldwide; this was a sign that the period of extreme stress triggered precocious puberty.

Similar relationships have been found in girls whose parents suffer from mood disorders or who do not have a father at home, both scenarios will increase their daily stress levels.

Although there is no conclusive evidence that stress at a young age can lead to precocious puberty, experts have long speculated on causation.