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Girls reaching puberty increasingly early, finds US study
Guardian ^ | 9 August 2010 | Ed Pilkington

Posted on 08/09/2010 11:26:00 AM PDT by Ben Mugged

A US study shows that almost one in four black girls and one in 10 white girls had developed breasts by the age of seven.

The findings are the latest in a string of studies showing that girls in the US are reaching puberty sooner, with implications both for the social and emotional wellbeing of girls as well as for their physical health in later life. Early maturation has been shown to cause low self-esteem and doubts about body image, as well as greater rates of eating problems, depression and attempted suicide.

It is linked to earlier sexual experiences, and later on carries greater risks of breast cancer.

The researchers found that at the age of seven 23.4% of black girls, 14.9% of Hispanics and 10.4% of white girls had developed breasts.

At 8 those proportions had risen further to 42.9%, 30.9% and 18.3% respectively.

A similar survey completed in 1997 found the proportion of white girls who had developed breasts by seven was 5% — half of what it is today.

The proportion of black girls in that bracket has also shot up in the past decade, from 15% in 1997 to 23% today.

Studies have shown that in the 1700s girls began menstruation on average at about age 17-18, though that might be as much to do with widespread malnutrition as with other factors.

Experts point to several possible causes of the declining age of puberty.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: puberty; sex
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To: Centurion2000

I am starting to actually move towards eating more organic stuff. Makes me feel like a hippie but I think there’s something to it...


61 posted on 08/09/2010 12:30:56 PM PDT by RockinRight (Outrage does not make the law.)
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To: MichiganConservative

Combined with other factors, probably, but yes.


62 posted on 08/09/2010 12:32:08 PM PDT by RockinRight (Outrage does not make the law.)
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To: 21twelve
My youngest daughter was very athletic. She didn't start her period until she was 16. It was awful at school for her. The guys were brutal and the girls were worse.
63 posted on 08/09/2010 12:32:51 PM PDT by ladyvet (WOLVERINES!!!!!)
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To: RockinRight; swain_forkbeard

found some references to the studies that I remember under a google search of “study father in home delays puberty”


64 posted on 08/09/2010 12:33:59 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a (de)humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: RockinRight

I agree. And the little girls all dressed up to look like miniature women doing those beauty contests are just sickening.


65 posted on 08/09/2010 12:35:06 PM PDT by Grumpybutt (Back off! I'm Grumpy (love that car window sticker!) LOL)
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To: dalebert
my doctor says its bc pills.

That certainly seems to line up with the chronology. It will be the LAST thing studied, though...for political reasons.

66 posted on 08/09/2010 12:36:26 PM PDT by Nevermore (...just a typical cracker, clinging to my Constitutional rights...)
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To: Ben Mugged
Growth accelerators in our food chain? Chemicals in our water? Seems to me that 50 years ago girls did not enter puberty until their early teems.

Childhood obesity. The body requires a certain amount of weight and fat before puberty begins, and obese kids are meeting those conditions earlier and earlier in their childhoods.
67 posted on 08/09/2010 12:36:26 PM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: RockinRight

I was wondering if what they call “breasts” are really like, “nubs” that form on little fat girls, and yes, I can remember it happening to black girls more than whites.


68 posted on 08/09/2010 12:42:59 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Hail Mary Full of Grace, The Lord Is With Thee...)
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To: Little Ray

Somebody mentioned that it seems to accelerate most among cohorts that are having children early - could it be an instinctual “competition”, a sense that the first to menstruate is the first to procreate?


69 posted on 08/09/2010 12:47:51 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Hail Mary Full of Grace, The Lord Is With Thee...)
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To: ichabod1

Probably. We already know that women living in proximity will “synchronize.”


70 posted on 08/09/2010 12:50:39 PM PDT by Little Ray (The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!)
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To: Beagle8U; huldah1776; Ben Mugged

“I read something a while back that said soy in the diet has a major effect.”

Non-fermented soy is a major player here. Soy is estrogenic. Soy was never meant to be food for humans or for animals. The far east uses much lower amounts of soy in their diet, and it is mostly fermented soy.

Soy milk is a major source of the problem in children. Soy milk should never be consumed by anyone. It induces prematuree puberty in young girls, causes delayed puberty in young boys, and soy is cancer inducing because it is estrogenic.

I believe this. Many in the scientific community also believe it. There have been studies, papers written. Google it if you have doubts. You will find info supporting the hazards of soy, those saying it is poppy-cock. I choose to believe soy is a serious hazard.


71 posted on 08/09/2010 12:50:44 PM PDT by GGpaX4DumpedTea (I am a tea party descendant - steeped in the Constitutional legacy handed down by the Founders)
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To: GGpaX4DumpedTea

Can fermented soy be used for the same purposes as non-fermented?


72 posted on 08/09/2010 12:52:51 PM PDT by RockinRight (Outrage does not make the law.)
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To: MrB

Just wanna support you on that as a remembered fact. I don’t have the reference, but I recall reading that as well.


73 posted on 08/09/2010 12:52:51 PM PDT by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur)
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To: Little Ray

Yes, they start “cycling” together, which I always thought sounded funny. But, like sending all the neighbor kids around when one kid catches measles, it’s more convenient for everybody to get it out of the way at the same time.


74 posted on 08/09/2010 12:52:56 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Hail Mary Full of Grace, The Lord Is With Thee...)
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To: GGpaX4DumpedTea

What about lactose-intolerant babies?


75 posted on 08/09/2010 12:53:51 PM PDT by RockinRight (Outrage does not make the law.)
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To: Ben Mugged

76 posted on 08/09/2010 12:58:38 PM PDT by reagan_fanatic (Never trust anyone who points their rear end at God while praying.)
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There are now more people in the gene pool from hot climates. People from nearer the the equator reach puberty sooner than people with Northern European genes. Northern European genes once dominated the US gene pool: not anymore, thanks to open borders and “here comes everybody” immigration from the Third World.


77 posted on 08/09/2010 1:18:34 PM PDT by Godwin1
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To: TheThirdRuffian

Oh my gosh! Made it up?

You must be a scientist.


78 posted on 08/09/2010 1:25:47 PM PDT by Delta Dawn (The whole truth.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Blood of Tyrants wrote:

My daughter is 9 and I can’t imagine her mom having to explain why she is bleeding from her vagina.

And the unfortunate handle of the day in a comment on Free Republic goes to...

Blood of Tyrants, for posting in an article about menstruation!

Come on down Blood of Tyrants, get your award!


79 posted on 08/09/2010 1:26:40 PM PDT by Ro_Thunder (Press want Obama = “Camelot II - The Return of JFK”, not “Peanuts II - that’s all you’ll have l)
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To: Ro_Thunder

How do you post a red faced emoticon?


80 posted on 08/09/2010 1:36:59 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Satan is a Democrat and Obama is his minion.)
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