How WEIGHT can affect puberty: Obese girls are more likely to start menstruating earlier, but breasts develop more slowly, study shows
- Researchers studied 90 girls between 8 and 15 years old, 36 were obese
- Previous studies have found that obese girls start puberty earlier
- Obese girls had higher levels of some key hormones than thin girls
- Linked to slow breast maturity, irregular periods, acne and excess body hair
Obese girls approaching adolescence have elevated hormone levels that can lead to them starting their periods before their slimmer mates, a new study has found.
Overweight girls also run an increased risk of menstrual cycles, delayed breast development, acne and excessive body hair during puberty.
Previous research has also found that obese young people start puberty earlier, but the new study is the first evidence why this may be the case.
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A study claims that stock overweight girls develop more acne and excessive body hair as they go through puberty.
Researchers from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) studied 90 girls between the ages of 8 and 15, 36 were obese and 54 with ‘normal’ weight.
They are regularly followed over four years by clinicians who perform ultrasound on their breasts and pelvic regions, as well as the hormone levels of the blood sample. Each girl also revealed when they had their first period.
“Girls with a larger total body fat showed higher levels of some reproductive hormones, including follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), inhibitor B and male hormones such as testosterone,” said Dr. Natalie Shaw said.
Research from the USA found that girls who carry too much puppy fat during their teens have different hormone levels than someone with an ideal weight (stock)
She adds that girls with higher body fat levels, as determined by a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan, were also younger during their first period and delayed breast maturation.
However, body fat and the subsequent altered hormone levels were found to have no appreciable impact on the development of the uterus and ovaries.
Dr Shaw adds: “The long-term consequences of these differences in puberty markers deserve further study.”
The research was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
In a 2007 study, 354 girls were followed through puberty and found that obese girls had a chance to have their first period before the age of 12.
There has long been a correlation seen between weight and puberty, but it was one of the first studies to show that weight probably caused early puberty, not the other way around.
A 2017 study from Imperial College London found that girls who start puberty earlier are also more likely to be overweight than adults.
According to Dr Dipender Gill, lead author of the Imperial study, this was evidence that early puberty does cause obesity in adulthood.
Both dr. Gill and dr. Joyce Lee, lead author of the 2007 study from the University of Michigan, believes that they have identified causality, indicating that they are obese when a child causes early puberty and this in turn causes obesity in adulthood.
However, while the relationship was established, its cause remained unknown.