Study: Age that girls hit puberty keeps dropping

[theHandpuppet]

Source: The Cincinnati Enquirer

Study: Age that girls hit puberty keeps dropping

The age at which girls hit puberty continues to drop, new research from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center shows.

<snipping>

Once breast development begins, menstruation typically follows within two to three years. Girls who menstruate earlier are at greater risk for breast cancer later in life.

Other health risks, including endometrial cancer, eating disorders and depression, are associated with earlier puberty and maturation. Behavioral issues, including earlier sexual activity, have also been noted.

"What causes earlier onset of puberty isn't entirely clear at this time, but we are looking closely at several different potential factors, including genes and environmental exposures, as well as how those two may interact with each other," Biro said.

Read more: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100809/LIFE07/8090337/1062/SPT/Study-Girls-hit-puberty-sooner?GID=vZOZieIft32JHo2aM4PaRineB4lvT/ZzhDx9M1FC7Wk%3D

[SpiralHawk]

1. And chemicals causing boys to become feminized

Boys are being feminized by their GM hormone-rich diets

Environmental Chemicals are Feminizing Boys

" picture is emerging of ubiquitous chemical contamination driving down sperm counts and feminizing male children all over the developed world.

"Research at Rotterdam's Erasmus University found that boys whose mothers were exposed to PCBs and dioxins were more likely to play with dolls and tea sets and dress up in female clothes.

"... The contamination may also offer a clue to a mysterious shift in the sex of babies. Normally 106 boys are born for every 100 girls...But the proportion of females is rising."

http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/11/14/2023219/Envi...

[MARALE]

3. I think that some of it has to do with milk

There are a lot of hormones feed to dairy cows to keep them producing milk. some of those hormones can get in to the milk supply. I think that there have been studies to this effect.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. See my post below--It's probably not milk per se

But these days even some supermarkets carry milk from cows that have not been fed hormones, so there is an out.

[BonnieJW]

16. I think it's the soy in EVERYTHING.

Soy contains large amounts of phytoestrogens. Try to find any baked good without soy flour or soy oil. It's in everything.

[wickerwoman]

56. But East Asians have been eating (and drinking) massive amounts of soy

for centuries without sperm counts being lowered.

Wouldn't there have been a noticeable effect in populations that consume lots of soy before now if it was down to natural causes?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

65. Not "massive" amounts of soy

Soy has been part of East Asian diets for thousands of years, and we can assume that people who tolerate and utilize soy well have an evolutionary advantage there. Even so, they eat only limited amounts of unfermented soy.

An American infant fed on soy formula ingests far more unfermented soy than the typical Asian adult. An American vegan who drinks soy smoothies, eats soy hot dogs and soy cheese, and chomps on edamame as a snack is ingesting far more unfermented soy than the typical Asian.

I'm of European descent, and I found that I could not tolerate even a daily soy smoothie for more than a few weeks before I developed a sensitivity. The stuff gave me indigestion and caused all my mucus membranes to itch. No, it was not in my head, because I got the reaction even if I didn't know that soy was in a particular food or drink.

I didn't eat or drink any soy for about a year, and than I needed to go to Japan. I wondered what would happen when I encountered Japanese food, but I was fine. I ate miso soup (one teaspoon or tablespoon of miso in fish broth with a few squares of tofu floating in it) daily with no problems. Japanese cooks use soy sauce, but they don't drench the food in it, so again, no problem. I don't like natto, but that's fermented. Soy milk drinks are available in Japanese stores, but they don't seem to be a huge part of anyone's diet, since I've seen them only in "juice box" sized containers.

I spent 5 weeks in China twenty years ago, and we had a tofu-based meal ONCE. Again, soy sauce was a condiment, but it was sprinkled rather than poured.

[wickerwoman]

66. YMMV.

I lived and worked in China for five years. Most of my colleagues and students drank soy milk on an almost daily basis and most group restaurant meals (which we had about weekly- business dinners) involved at least one tofu dish, either mapu doufu, tofu braised with crabmeat, stir-fried tofu skin or a kind of eggroll wrapped in tofu skin.

I'm not familiar with the exact make-up of infant formula but all the Chinese people I knew ate what could be characterized as a massive amount of soy. At least a serving a day. If this significantly lowered sperm count, don't you think that would be at least a little bit obvious in Asian populations (or even in American Seventh Day Adventists who have been eating largely soy based diets since the 1950s and invented most of those meat substitute products.)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

68. There may be something harmful about large amounts of soy in infancy

when all the body systems are developing.

[marions ghost]

71. Right

people don't realize that fermented soy (tofu, soy sauce etc) consumed in Asia is different from just adding unfermented soy to processed food here. Excessive consumption has been associated with thyroid problems. This happened to a good friend of mine. She was a lifetime vegetarian and an avid soy eater. She now has to take synthroid. Eats very little soy now. Children should definitely avoid unfermented soy and adults should also consume very little. The problem is isoflavones.

"Isoflavones belong to the flavonoid or bioflavonoid family of chemicals, and are considered endocrine disruptors -- plants or other products that act as hormones, disrupting the endocrine system, and in some cases, this disruption involves acting as an anti-thyroid agent. (The grain millet, for example, contains high levels of flavonoids, and is commonly known as problematic for thyroid function). Flavonoids inhibit thyroid peroxidase (TPO), which disturbs proper thyroid function.

The March 1999 issue of Natural Health magazine has a feature on soy that quotes Daniel R. Doerge, Ph.D., a researcher at the Food and Drug Aministration's National Center for Toxicological Research. Dr. Doerge has researched soy's anti-thyroid properties, and has said "...I see substantial risks from taking soy supplements or eating huge amounts of soyfoods for their putative disease preventive value. There is definitely potential for interaction with the thyroid."

One UK study of premenopausal women gave 60 grams of soy protein per day for one month. This was found to disrupt the menstrual cycle, with the effects of the isoflavones continuing for a full three months after stopping the soy in the diet. Isoflavones are also known to modify fertility and change sex hormone status. Isoflavones have been shown to have serious health effects -- including infertility, thyroid disease or liver disease -- on a number of mammals." ...more at:

http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/soydangers.htm

[DailyGrind51]

10. You are 100% correct! The same hormones that make cows produce milk longer,

also keeps them fertile and able to conceive and bear calves. This same extended fertility is transmitted in milk products to children who consume them, making girls mature earlier and boys to develop gynecomastia "man boobs".

[Lightning Count]

46. Doubtful for the same reason that you receive no immuno-benefit from cow's milk. nt

[superconnected]

19. I think you're on to something there. I know a lot of milk drinkers will deny it but I've

read lots of studies now where milk has high cow hormones in it that it didn't have 20 years ago because farmers are giving their cows lots of hormones to get them to produce 4 times the milk they used to.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Evasporque]

17. Girl Power!

I say free the effeminate male!!

[Lightning Count]

20. And girls should be more feminine too.

Giggly, fragile, wearing skirts, cooking, cleaning, ironing. I personally would like to see an end to "working widowers" who have lost their wives to unnecessary things like careers.

[LanternWaste]

42. Ahhh.... the "zero sum" trap.

Ahhh.... the "zero sum" trap.

[undeterred]

58. Give me a break.

[Lightning Count]

70. Or maybe they should be more masculine.

They could help around the house lifting heavy things and doing yard work that requires a lot of upper body strength.

[superconnected]

21. I'm not opposed to the femination of boys either - ala The book Gate to Womens Country

however getting it in GMO's and other products - high hormones in milk that cause cancer,etc. is not a good idea.

[Veilex]

34. I'd like to point out that all those hormones that cause this shift

are dangerous in the long run... particularly for those men. Male physiology is not designed to handle the same hormones at the same levels within a woman's body... and vice-versa. For example, too much testosterone within the female body causes irregular periods, weight-gain, pronounced facial hair, Adult acne and quite often the inability to get pregnant. This nasty little problem is an often overlooked affliction called PCOS or Polycystic ovary syndrome. Right now, its common enough that one in every fourteen women have it... and its thanks in large part to GMOs. For men, excess estrogen (the hormone that typically effeminates men) can cause thyroid disorders, behavioral and developmental disorders and cancer. You wont have the chest pounding typical image of a testosterone laden man... instead you'll have a male who is very unsure of themselves and underdeveloped... as well as having a high likelihood of having a shorter lifespan. Put simply, Men need testosterone... Women need estrogen... but the human body produces these substances naturally. The hormones in food throws these levels way out of line and can cause massive health issues.

If someone is naturally effeminate, there is nothing wrong with that... if not, they are fine the way they are as well.

[XemaSab]

44. This is a really sexist post

n/t

[uppityperson]

24. Boys who play with dolls/tea sets are practicing to be contributing parents.

which seems like a good thing to me.
"boys whose mothers were exposed to PCBs and dioxins were more likely to play with dolls and tea sets".

[cbdo2007]

37. they say this about "lavender" scented baby shampoo and other lavender stuff.

[SpiralHawk]

2. Eat clean food

Avoid like the plague the corporate mutant hormone and chem-soaked process facsimile crapola (R).

It may not make you sick immediately, but there are consequences that arise over time...

Eat clean food. Save yourself. Save your children. Save the planet.

[uberblonde]

4. Don't forget all the household stuff.

Like shampoo and soap that has these chemicals in them.

[superconnected]

23. Do you know how hard it is even to eat food without GMO's now a days since they

AREN'T LABELED? Only 85% of corn in America is now GMO corn...

[NikRik]

5. Like to see a complete study !

On the effects of all checmicial enhancers used on our foods to increase the weight the speed at which it grows etc. A study that covers all ages ,both sexes and also its effects on those who already suffer with some kind of condition !
We try our best to go to farmenrs markets and buy our vegtables and fruit from local growers instead on imported foods from countries that give the large corperations specail treatment due to donations to their countries improvished situation.

[ensho]

6. yes, man made hormones are in everything - meat, fish, water

men and boys are getting breasts and testicle problems (are they growing milk glands too? I wonder)

girls are bleeding sooner and developing bigger breasts sooner.

what the hormones are doing to brains I haven't read about. it surely must have some effect.

[Lightning Count]

7. Could be environmental/media induced.

The culture is becoming more and more sexualized. Just look at Jersey Shore or Gossip Girl. Could be that girls are being told they should act a certain way and their bodies are responding to the suggestions.

[Johonny]

11. Hmm

You mean girls that develop sooner may be more likely to not be social outcasts in high school. Thus they may marry earlier, have kids sooner and ultimately leave more off spring for the next generation. Where as girls that develop later can't keep up in the ever growing sexualized modern culture as young adults. They would tend to marry later in life and thus have less children. If age of puberty has a strong genetic component, it could lead to lowering of the average of puberty in succeeding generations.

Interesting a non-chemical induced speculation. Without further research it is probably impossible to tell.

[Lightning Count]

12. Exactly right.

A simple bio-feedback response.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Kids drank more milk and fewer soft drinks and juices in my day. Maybe it's

all those soy-based infant formulas. Millions of American kids are being fed soy in greater quantities than are typically consumed in Asian countries.*


*About ten years ago, I consumed so much soy (for its estrogenic properties) that I became sensitive to it, so I stopped drinking soy milk, eating tofu stir fries, etc. About a year later, I went to Japan for the first time in 8 years, apprehensive about the inevitable appearance of soy products. But I found that eating miso soup (a teaspoon of miso dissolved in fish broth with six tiny tofu chunks floating in it) caused no problems at all.

[iamthebandfanman]

14. i remember once reading an article about men becoming sterile

eventually due to the amount of hormones we all consume, and that theres a heavy dose even in our water supplies now...


we wouldnt be the first species to eliminate an entire sex..there are other creatures that have lost all their males and changed to reproduce without them

[TheWraith]

15. Actually, this trend has been happening for about 100 years.

I hate to break it to the "hormones in milk, hormones in milk!" crowd, but the age of puberty in girls has been declining since long before we had hormones in milk, PCBs, or other modern chemicals. Why? Nobody's really sure.

[ejpoeta]

18. it's obesity. that's what the today show said this morning.

i didn't hear them say anything about chemicals or hormones, though my hubby turned the tv down because he was on the phone with his boss so they might have. obesity is the reason for every problem there is.

[TheWraith]

22. Possibly. Fat does result in hormone changes.

Although good science is highly skeptical of any "easy" answer without a provable link.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

51. yes body weight (fat) is a factor in the onset of puberty

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/924002-overview

[alp227]

61. You can re-watch the story here as reported from NBC Nightly News

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38600414/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/

And Curry also interviewed a pediatrician on the Today show

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/38621963#38623078

[Lorien]

31. Not quite. From the article:

Researchers led by Frank Biro, director of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children's, found that the number of 7- and 8-year-old girls with breast development was higher than found in studies conducted 10 to 30 years earlier.

[superconnected]

43. What's your excuse for the mass increase in the last decade?

"At age 7, approximately 10 percent of white girls and 23 percent of black girls had started developing breasts - compared to 5 percent of white girls and 15 percent of black girls in 1997, the authors write.

Among 8-year-olds in the study, 18 percent of white girls and 43 percent of black girls had entered puberty - an increase from around 11 percent of white girls from 1997, but the same as black girls in that year.
A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved. - "

---
"I hate to break it to " - Somehow I doubt that. Since that statement is likely not true, you start your post with what appears to be a *lie*.

"age of puberty in girls has been declining since long before we had hormones in milk" - at the rate it is NOW? Gee everyone would be in puberty at birth!

"Why? Nobody's really sure." - Gee, maybe we ought to look around and try to see why? Hormones should definitely be suspect.

[L0oniX]

25. BGH

Genetically engineered Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH/BST) in your milk
Both the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Consumer's Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, have warned of the potential hazards to human health caused by consuming products derived from rBGH-treated cows.

[BadgerKid]

29. re: BGH

OTOH, there's this claim on Wikipedia:

According to the Food and Drug Administration, food products made from rBST treated cows are safe for human consumption, and no significant difference exists between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows.<15> The FDA found bGH to be biologically inactive when consumed by humans and found no biological distinction between rBST and BST.<15> In 1990, an independent panel convened by the National Institute of Health supported the FDA opinion that milk and meat from cows supplemented with rBST is safe for human consumption.(citation needed)

<15> "Report on the Food and Drug Administration's Review of the Safety of Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin". 1999. http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/ProductSafetyInformation/ucm130321.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-02.


So are the "independent" panel and FDA to be believed? I have my doubts. I would really like it if government and academia were free from industry bias.

[L0oniX]

33. Ah well they also say that aspartame and sucralose are safe too.

How many drugs and other products have been released to for public use that later have been discovered to be bad in one way or another? As far as this BGH thing goes and those studies it flies in the face of common sense. What does BGH do to cows? ...and it's not suppose to do that to people? ...and human breast milk passes along toxins and other substances but with cows it doesn't? Apparently some studies are skewed with money'd interest.

[Lightning Count]

35. Pasteurization is the difference. nt

[superconnected]

53. Plus - since that makes cows fatter, I bet it makes humans fatter too.

[valerief]

26. Soy, bisphenol A, and maybe other hormone disruptors. nt

[Lorien]

30. Sodium Laurel Sufate among them, which is in damn near every cleanser

and personal care product.

[valerief]

32. Yeah! That's every-friggin-where. nt

[gauguin57]

27. It's probably due to some combination of many of the causes mentioned in this thread.

Whatever the cause ... it's scary. Kids grow up too fast already; this can't help in that regard.

So glad I was able to stay a "kid" as long as I did (some might say I still am :evilgrin:).

I would probably have been an emotional mess if I'd developed/gotten my period really early. I thank goddess I didn't.

Look what we're doing to our kids, ourselves and our planet. Makes me cry.

[superconnected]

55. I quit climbing trees and being a tomboy when I started my period, I was 12.

That was also when I became aware of my body - and self conscious about it - no more two piece swim suites.

I hate that girls will start puberty at 7 because that means so many more miss nearly half their childhood and won't get what I got - which was a great kidhood.

[Roland99]

28. Ah...I see "Duh!" Magazine has a new issue out.

I've been saying this for years. Noticed it when my daughter was in Middle School. Kids that were 11, 12 years old looked like high school seniors (or older!)

Aside from the obesity and plastics potential causes listed in the article, look at all the hormone-injected beef and crap added to milk and who knows what preservatives and things like aspertame are doing. And, for that matter, the greater amount of RF in our everyday lives from cell phones, laptops, cell towers, etc.

[superconnected]

36. Wow - breasts on 7 year olds - this is scary.

At age 7, approximately 10 percent of white girls and 23 percent of black girls had started developing breasts - compared to 5 percent of white girls and 15 percent of black girls in 1997, the authors write.

Among 8-year-olds in the study, 18 percent of white girls and 43 percent of black girls had entered puberty - an increase from around 11 percent of white girls from 1997, but the same as black girls in that year.

[Lightning Count]

38. Genetics, diet, power of suggestion?

All are possibilities. The variance in races is staggering.

[superconnected]

39. Not genetics - not with that much difference in 10 years. Hormones in milk most likely.

[Lightning Count]

40. So Black girls drink that much more milk than White girls?

Unlikely. Pasteurization takes care of those hormones as well.

[superconnected]

41. Genetics do NOT kick in, in 10 years. That's not even close to a generation.

It's most likely external influence and food is a good bet. African American's reach puberty faster anyway so drinking the same amount of milk as whites would not make them equal in the developmental area.

[Lightning Count]

45. "Genetics do NOT kick in, in 10 years"

Genetics are not time dependent. They are affecting you this moment.

"African American's reach puberty faster anyway" Genetics?

[wickerwoman]

57. No, but African American parents

are less likely to be able to afford organic, hormone-free milk for their kids. Also, they are more likely to bottle-feed formula made with soy-products.

[defendandprotect]

50. And . . . more MALES are developing breasts . . . !!!

"Blacks" -- better known as African Americans are 15% larger than "whites."

[FirstLight]

47. anecdotal...

My daughter is 8 and is sprouting little breast-buds, her hips have curved out and her moods are even noticeable when I am PMS-ing (phermones of women tend to synchronize)

I had her blood hormone levels tested, just because i was worried about another health issue causing the changes...but they appear normal, though a 'bit high' on the scale...

I have always tried to buy NON hormone treated milk products...and I breast fed for the most part...my mom and I and my sister all started menses by 12, she could be looking at starting by 10! Within ONE generation!

I don't know what the deal is, but there's hormones and estrogen mimicing chemicals in everything we eat, drink, breathe, wash with, etc...so finding the culprit is like looking for a needle in a haystack

[tammywammy]

62. I started when I was 10 (in 1990)

And I was skinny as a rail (some in this thread point to obesity as a cause). I think my mom told me she had started later than I did, maybe 12. I had friends that I found out years later that didn't start until 14/15.

[greymattermom]

48. another theory

The blue light in tv activates melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cells that project to the hypothalamus to control circadian rhythms and reproduction. The problem is caused by too much tv, made worse if there is a tv in the child's room.

[defendandprotect]

49. Pollution of planet and our foods -- hormones and chemicals in animal-eating ....

and all the crap in our water!!

Meanwhile, ironically, for decades male sperm has been dropping --

that's why all the fertility clinic intervention!!

[mainer]

52. Exposure to more light = hormonal changes

It's been noted that when remote areas of the world become electrified, allowing lighting in homes, pubertal age starts to decrease. This happens without other pollutants or food additives. It may be that light exposure affects the hypothalamus and therefore hormones, leading to earlier menarche. We all know how light can improve SAD, and there's the effect of ambient lighting on the hypothalamus. This may be a more important factor than we've yet realized.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

54. for boys is this the case?

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/peds.2009-3079v1

[mainer]

59. For boys, there's nothing equivalent to menarche

With girls, there's a specific physical sign of early puberty. With boys, we don't have the equivalent of the first menstruation. But I suspect it must be affecting boys as well.

When communities become electrified, suddenly homes are exposed to light late into the night. Natural sleep-wake cycles are disrupted. Surely it must affect everyone.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

60. actually Tanners Stages in boys

there are specific stages

[happyslug]

63. No comments on exercise? Based on other reports the main factor.

I hate to say it, but since the 1840s we have seen a slow a steady decline in the age on onset of menarche.

The average age at which the onset of puberty occurs has dropped significantly since the 1840s.<37><38><39> Researchers refer to this drop as the 'secular trend'. In every decade from 1840 to 1950 there was a drop of four months in the average age of menarche among Western European females. In Norway, girls born in 1840 had their menarche at an average age of 17 years. In France the average in 1840 was 15.3 years. In England the average in 1840 was 16.5 years. In Japan the decline happened later and was then more rapid: from 1945 to 1975 in Japan there was a drop of 11 months per decade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puberty

Some reports of a delay in Menstruation, do to exercise: The first report is from 1982
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/01/garden/personal-health-effects-of-exercise-on-menstruation.html?&pagewanted=all

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0617.htm
http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=76962

Premenstrual cramps are reduced after adopting increase level of Exercise:
http://www.cemcor.ubc.ca/help_yourself/articles/positive_view_exercise
http://www.teengrowth.com/index.cfm?action=info_article&ID_article=1377

Basically, as people have access to means to get around OTHER then by physical means (Walking), the age of onset of puberty drops. In simple terms the less exercise you do in your daily activities the sooner menarche kicks in. I ate to say this but when I went to school my parents NEVER picked me up. I took the bus (Three years), Streetcar (Three years) or walked about 3/4 of a mile one way to my school (six years). I repeated first grade do to the fact my family moved from one school district to another school district, but in that first year of school I had to walk 1/4 mile to the bus stop. This is the 1960s and 1970s.

Since that time period more and more people are picking up their children at school. Various reasons are given, convenience, security etc, but the affect is more and more children are getting less and less exercise in their daily lives. Gym can NOT replace this lost of exercise. One hour gym is to short to compensate for the loss of daily exercise. Furthermore, I lived at the end of the time period where you could walk to places to shop. It could take an hour or longer, but I did it and I and my parents thought nothing of me or my siblings doing so (I am sorry, my older sister out did me in this regard, while she was in the Navy, there were two towns she could walk to while doing her training for the US Navy. One was about a mile from the base, that is the one everyone walked to but there was almost nothing there, the other town was about five miles away, she had a habit of hiking to it, it was so bad the guards had orders NOT to leave any female recruits walk in that direction the Command structure were NOT set up for it, even then times were changing).

My grandfather thought nothing of walking from my Father's house, In northern Washington County Pa, through Allegheny County (County Seat Pittsburgh) to his daughter's home in Butler County, north of Pittsburgh. He did so when he was 85 years old. He had done such walks throughout his life, walking to Frederick Maryland just a few years before (He was killed by a Drunk Driver while walking from his daughter's home back to my Father's home in 1964 at the age of 86).

That is the type of exercise so missing among today's youth. Exercise NOT for exercise sake, but exercise just to get some place. We have so adopted the automotive life style that the roads are unsafe for pedestrians AND where we live and where we go for picnic, shopping or even work is so far away we have to drive. The same with children. Most schools are so far away they have to be driven to the school.

Thus the best explanation is improved food AND less exercise (Do to mechanization of most work) has lead to decrease age when menarche occurs. We need to get out children to do more exercise as part of their child hood, and I mean exercise ALL children can do (i.e. NOT sports) and that is best done by integrating exercise with going to and from school and other activities. That means roads safe for pedestrians and bicyclists. There is a movement for such actions, but it needs support.


Some other factors that MAY be coming into play (all appear to be less important then exercise but are still factors):

1. The drop of 11 months per decade for Japan between 1945 and 1978 can best be explained in the terms of improved access to food. Prior to its defeat, Japan tried to be self-sufficient in food. With US occupation that ended and with access to improved diets the people of Japan started to grow. By the 1960s the desk in many Japanese Schools were to small for the then larger children (and I mean larger in HEIGHT not weight) and had to be replaced AND that happened again in the 1980s. The best explanation for that was that Ovaries of Women are almost all created while she is in her mother's womb (more recent studies indicate some develop later but most are developed in the the woman's mother's womb). Some how, the mechanism is unknown, if the grandmother is facing a shortage of food, she transmit to her child AND her child's ovaries to produce smaller children. If on the other hand the Grandmother has full access to food, the same mechanism leads not only to her children to be taller BUT also her Grandchildren to be even taller. This is seen in the two step increase in height in Japanese School age children. The same affect may also be a factor in onset of Puberty. The exact connection is unknown but seems to be a factor.

2. Exposure of young girls to adult males also seems to be a factor. The more adult males their are exposed to the sooner menarche occurs. How this comes into play no one knows, but seems to be a factor.

[Salander]

64. One thing not mentioned so far is "sexual abuse" by the media.

Children's programing, like the Disney channel plants in young people's minds that sexuality is inseparable from self-worth. This is just an other one of the multi-factored explanations for early puberty-- but it is one that MSM won't touch.

[raccoon]

67. That may be so, but there was a lot of sexual abuse going on in the past.

It just wasn't talked about.

Plenty of women were sexually abused in the past...it just got swept up under the rug.

[Salander]

69. I'm talking about media porn-- hard and soft

It's hard to think of any significant MEDIA exploitation of women's sexuality before, say 40 years ago. Can you?