Study: Puberty Blues From 9yo

From Mail Online:

More and more girls are starting puberty at primary school age, research shows. A study of 1,000 girls found that breast development now begins on average a year earlier than 20 years ago - around the age of nine years and ten months. It underlines a long-term trend that has seen the average age at which girls hit puberty fall sharply. In the 19th century it was around 15.

Scientists yesterday spoke of the serious implications for girls' physical and emotional health. There are fears that early puberty could put girls at higher risk of breast cancer and heart disease because of the increased exposure to oestrogen.

Dr Anders Juul, of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, which carried out the research, said: 'If girls mature early, they run into teenage problems at an early age and they're more prone to diseases later on.

Menstruation Gene

From BBC News:

Scientists say they have begun to crack the genetic code that helps determine when a girl becomes a woman.

A UK-led team located two genes on chromosomes six and nine that appear to strongly influence the age at which menstruation starts.

The Nature Genetics study also provides a clue for why girls who are shorter and fatter tend to get their periods months earlier than classmates.

The genes sit right next to DNA controlling height and weight.

In collaboration with research institutions across Europe and the US, they studied 17,510 women from across the world, including women of European descent who reported reaching menstruation of between nine and 17 years of age.

When they split the women up according to the age they began menstruating, certain gene patterns appeared.

Scanning the whole genome enabled them to hone in on these differences and pinpoint the exact genes most likely accountable.

Three other papers, also published in Nature Genetics, throw up other candidate genes which appear to be involved in the onset of puberty.