Despite claims that children are experiencing puberty earlier, there s very little good data to back that up, the chief of pediatric cardiology at University of Massachusetts Medical School writes in a column for Slate. While a well-publicized study in Pediatrics last month concluded girls were undergoing puberty as young as 7, Dr. Darshak Sanghavi points out the difficulties in using breast development to measure when puberty begins. A more objective measure is the age of menarche, which for 40 years has remained at 12 for U.S. girls. Dr. Sanghavi concludes:
The epidemic of earlier and earlier puberty is a myth that the media love and certain researchers continue to propagate. The tale's promotion doesn't always depend on data. Instead, worries about earlier physical maturation in girls sublimate and propel concerns about society's sexualization of young girls, whether by provocative dance routines or revealing clothing. Those topics certainly get people talking. Unfortunately, any solutions are unlikely to come from the labs of our nation's endocrinologists.
Apparently this is another enviro-myth which almost everyone believes like falling sperm counts, says ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross.