Earlier Menarche From Chubbier Girls, No Small Issue.

Reproductive milestones have been “hard-wired” into humanity for millennia.

Reproductive milestones are when humans hormonally become adults, able to sustain the race. Reproductive milestones include menarche, puberty, perimenopause, and menopause.

Sexual development and the evolution of humanity is driven by reproductive milestones.

Menarche & Menopause

Menarche is the first menstrual cycle, or first menstrual bleeding, in female humans. From both social and medical perspectives, it is often considered the central event of female puberty, as it signals the possibility of fertility.

Menopause is having no menstrual bleeding for one solid year.

“The age of puberty, especially female puberty, has been decreasing in Western cultures for decades now,”

“For example, at the turn of the 20th century, the average age for an American girl to get her period was 16 or 17. Today, that number has decreased to 12 or 13 years.”

- Chapa

Puberty in America

American girls are hitting puberty younger and younger.

In Puerto Rico, six-month-old infants have been experiencing" “breast buds” - showing shockingly early signs of hormonal activity - way before normal/typical ties.

It’s not just girls, a study from the American Academy of Pediatrics found that boys were starting puberty earlier than previously recorded. According to the findings, boys are now beginning puberty around, or, a little before age 10.

Males undergo puberty during a growth spurt that usually lasts between ages 10 and 14. During this time, the body increases in size and changes shape.

Previously, 11 years of age was the given number when boys began puberty. The study claimed that the public health implication of these findings is unknown and requires further studies.

But a change of even a few months in previously hardwired human phenomena, is no small thing.

There is no definitive answer to why the age of puberty has dropped so dramatically, but there are theories, whether it’s the increased body mass index in children, nutritional factors, toxic endocrine disruptors especially in the egg, sperm, placenta and mother’s milk, or hormone influences in dietary intake (growth factors fed to animals then consumed by humans).

Increased Body Mass

Increasing body mass or being overweight or obese is one driving factor.

One Brazilian study included female adolescents aged 12-17, a total of 73,624 students were evaluated, comprising 40,803 girls, of whom 37,390 reported menarche at a mean age of 11.71 years and a median of 12.41 years.

The median age at menarche was lower in overweight and obese girls (p<0.001).

Excess weight = earlier menarche.

Even after adjusting for confounding factors.

Earlier menarche greatly increases the risk of hormonally driven cancers and other issues down the road.

A huge analysis of the data in the American Journal of Epidemiology (2014) found: Early menarche was consistently associated with a higher risk of “death” from “all” causes.

Futzing with hard-wired timing is harsh on human physiology.

Since this is a new trend, we do not yet know how to address it.

But it means that hormones need to be tracked in even young patients, no matter their presenting symptoms.

And it means that childhood obesity is no small thing.

Notice if you and or your young kids are getting chubby, ACT on it now.

Your kids are your greatest mirrors.

Look in the mirror and act.

Your kids see all that you do.

As you become more disciplined, so do they.

If not at this time in their lives, perhaps later.

How you act matters - for how your kids will act.

Weight is part of that equation.

It may make a huge difference in health outcomes for all.

Knowledge is power.

Want to take a deeper dive? I go into reproductive milestones in-depth in Hormone Deception.

Dr. B.

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References:

https://vitalrecord.tamhsc.edu/decreasing-age-puberty/

ERICA: age at menarche and its association with nutritional status. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2019 Jan-Feb;95(1):106-111. doi: 10.1016/j.jped.2017.12.004. Epub 2018 Jan 18. PMID: 29352861.

Age at menarche and risks of all-cause and cardiovascular death: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Epidemiol. 2014 Jul 1;180(1):29-40. doi: 10.1093/age/kwu113. Epub 2014 Jun 11. PMID: 24920784; PMCID: PMC4070937.

Age at menarche and risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Menopause. 2018 Dec 17;26(6):670-676. doi: 10.1097/GME.0000000000001289. PMID: 30562317.

Hormone Deception Berkson DL McGraw-Hill 2000 Awakened Medicine Press 2016