How 15% of American girls go through puberty by the age of SEVEN



Early development: 15 per cent of girls go through puberty by the age of seven

Around 15 percent of American girls are going through puberty by the age of seven, research has revealed.

Doctor’s don’t know why girls are maturing so faster – although there are a variety of theories.

Among black girls almost one in four – 23 percent – go through puberty by the age of seven, according to the study published in Pediatrics.

In just three decades ‘childhood’ has been cut back by a year and a half as youngsters develop earlier.

The amount of time youngsters spend in front of the television, the rise of obesity and the pressures of modern family life have all been picked out as possible causes.

Ten percent of white girls begin developing breasts by seven – while it was just five percent in 1997, USA Today said.



Laila, a nine-year-old from Los Angeles, was a rapid developer who went through puberty when she was aged just six.

Doctors warned she could begin menstruating while she was eight.

The young girl – whose name has been withheld to protect her privacy – has since undergone two courses of hormone therapy.

She was a rapid developer who was walking when she was aged just eight and a half months – usually it is at around one year. By the age of six she had grown pubic hair.

Laila's mother Claudia and engineer father Joe were initially concerned that she may have a brain tumour – although she was later given the all clear.

Claudia told USA Today: ‘She is still our baby but to look at her now, and think that she is growing faster than the average, we can't help but to feel like we are being rushed through her primary years.’

It is thought because of her early puberty she will stop growing at a younger age – and probably end up shorter than her classmates.

Gynaecologist Dr Michelle Tham, based in New York, told MyFoxDC that there were a number of possible causes for early puberty – including obesity.

‘We have known for a long time that peripheral fat makes estrogen and so the more fat you have perhaps the more estrogen you have in your system which could cause this,’ she said. However she added that the research is ‘not really there yet’.

Chemicals found in plastics are another possible cause.

She said that girls who develop rapidly suffer from lower self-esteem and tend to be more promiscuous. There is also a link with breast cancer development.

According to a study published in the journal Pediatrics last year, 15 per cent of American girls have begun puberty by age seven.





