Early onset of puberty?!

18 years ago

On a related note: my mom and I were talking recently about whether girls are hitting puberty at a younger age these days than was once the case. We'd both read/heard things that seem to point to a few explanations: girls (people in general) are heavier, which might be a trigger, more of the food supply contains hormones, etc.

I'm curious to know whether your own experience supports any of this. While my mother was 15 (1960) when she first started to menstruate, I was 12 (1982) My own daughter (9) is as tall and about the same weight that I was at age 12...how about you -- did your daughter begin at about the same time you did - or was there an appreciable difference?

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Comments (26)

monica_pa Grieves
18 years ago
I was 13,8th grade...1958, and most of my friends started before me.
15 sounds unusually old.
danihoney
18 years ago
I was 12 (1981). I only have boys and they are late bloomers. I know a few of their peers (girls) that started at 9 and 10.
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sheilajoyce_gw
18 years ago
They are starting puberty younger these days. Better nutrition is part of it. Also mentioned is the amount of agricultural hormones in food we eat. I am tall and DD is short, and that has a lot to do with it too. When they are within about a half inch or so of their adult height, menses starts. Tall girls tend to start later, according to my reading on the subject, because they usually continue to grow in height for a later and longer time.
teachbls
Original Author
18 years ago
I think that my mom was one of those extraordinarily skinny girls (hence the later start?); I know that there is a correlation between onset of menses and BMI. For examples, many anorexics stop altogether - or see the start of it delayed until they hit a normal weight relative to their height.
casey_nfld
18 years ago
I was 11. And I was always tall for my age. I don't have any kids, but I have heard of 9 year olds starting.
bestlawn
18 years ago
I found SheilaJoyce's post fascinating. Never heard that about height or tall girls before. Have to say all the old rules don't seem to apply anymore, and I don't know if more recent determinations have been made that are considered definitive. My daughter is 5'8" and began menstruating one week before her 9th birthday. She was broad and firm, albeit overweight. I began at 11 shortly after beginning 6th grade and really can't imagine I only grew half an inch afterwards.
grammahony
18 years ago
Oh Mallory, your poor daughter. My DGD started last fall at 10 1/2. She's taller than I am and I'm 5'1" so she's probably 5'2" or more now. I think I was 12 or 13 when I started. I don't really remember. I think my 4 daughters were all about 12 when they started, the tallest one being 5'4".
Leslie

Leslie
girlsingardens
18 years ago
I think that I was 13 or so when I started. I was in the eighth grade. I was the oldest of 6 so mom had to learn the rules with me. The funny thing is I remember all my friends shaving their legs in elementary school. My mom was insistant in me not shaving until I was in the 7th grade. The day before the first day of school, we sat dressed on the side of the tub,while she showed me how to shave my legs. I was so excited. Now the funny thing is that I rarely shave my legs even in summer and am tempted to stop completely until the baby comes just to see how long it gets. I let it grow in college and it got to 3/4 an inch to one inch long before I shaved.

Stacie
ritamay91710
18 years ago
I think I was 13, almost 14.
I don't have kids, but I have 2 neices that started when they were 9, I think the other was like 11. Kinda sad, so young to have to worry about that.
Kathsgrdn
18 years ago
I was 11, my dd is soon to be 12 and still hasn't started. I'm kinda glad, but she is already developing...so it won't be long.
jannie
18 years ago
My younger daughter was extremely late-17 and 4 months. We nearly celebrated when she told me she got her period. It was on New years Day 2007. I had to run out to the drug store to get her "supplies".
Terri_PacNW
18 years ago
few days after my 11th birthday. I still think that 11-12 is the norm. My oldest son hit puberty about 6 months behind most of his peers..however he was a slight premie..and we think that affected him in this manner, his growth spurts are also about 6 months behind his peers.
I had a friend in school that didn't start until our jr or sr year..but that was typical for her family. The woman in her family(mom and older sisters) had alot of female trouble and getting pregnant was tough for them as well. I think they all ended up having hysterectomies with the birth of their last child.

And it also seems true that girls don't grow a whole lot more once they begin regular menstration.
marilyn_c
18 years ago
I was a month or two shy of 13 and I think my daughter was 13.

I never gave her cow's milk...which I understand is loaded with hormones, so don't know if that had anything to do with it or not. However, now that she is grown, she drinks milk.
I keep telling her not too...that stuff isn't good for you. :)
sue36
18 years ago
My mother was 13 (1952), I was 13 (1981), my sister was 16 (1985), my niece was 15 (2006).

I was an early bloomer for back then. Close to full grown by 8th grade, needed a real bra (badly) in 6th grade. My sister was the opposite. My niece was a late bloomer (physically, not mentally, sigh...) and lived a food hormone free life, so maybe that had something to do with it? She's now 16 and still a string bean (my sister and I were not, we were average weight). Even though my sister started 3 years later than I did, we ended up at almost the same height. My mother started at the same age as me (13) and I am 5" taller than her.

It's ironic. Being heavy seems to start early puberty, it also is a result of infertility later on.
stephanie_in_ga
18 years ago
I was 14 1/2, a sophomore in HS, very small for my age, and far as I know the last among my friends. Which was fine with me!

I have also heard that the "average" age now is 2 years younger than the previous generation. So to expect our daughters to start 2 years earlier than we did. Mothers I've talked to with daughters older than mine have had that experience.

My DD is only 8, and petite. So I'm hoping she's got a few years to go. It must be very awkward for girls in elementary school to take care of those needs when the bathrooms are set up for young children and don't always meet the needs of menstuating girls (like trash cans in every stall). I think I'd consider a BC pill that would regulate periods to 4 times/year if my daughter started that young.
amicus
18 years ago
My mother and sisters all started at age 12, but I was a really late bloomer and finally started just before my 16th birthday ('71). I had shot up in height from 5'3" to 5'7" just before it happened, though I was still flat as a board. My own DD took after me and was also almost 16 ('02) when she started, but she ended up being 5'8" because she grew 3 more inches after turning 16, which surprised us. I hope she takes after me with easy fertility, pregnancies and labors!

I have a question for you all. I've heard that the average length of menstrual cyles lasts 36 to 40 years. So I'm kind of bummed out thinking that since I didn't start till almost 16, I might not end till almost 56! For those of you no longer having periods, did you fit into that timeline?
bestlawn
18 years ago
It's ironic. Being heavy seems to start early puberty, it also is a result of infertility later on.

I don't understand.
intherain
18 years ago
My mom was 16 when she got her period, and I was 15 1/2. My daughter is now 12 and hasn't had hers yet. She is very thin, and her pediatrician explained that you must have a certain amount of body fat before your cycle can start. She is under that amount. She is built just like my mother and I were. Thin as rails until we hit 15. Then we had a MAJOR growth spurt. I got stretch marks in my hips and thighs from it! I suspect it will be the same for my DD.

Sheryl
wildchild
18 years ago
I believe my mother once told me she was 14 or 15. She was 5'8" and slender. I got mine either the day before or the day after turning twelve. I am 5'1". My DD was 14, 5'10" and slender.

We were all pear shapes in our youth. Hips and thighs came before breasts.

I was the most athletically built. Mostly muscle and very little fat at the time. You couldn't pinch me. LOL

DD has smaller bones was not quite as athletic but was more lean than fat.

Mother was built the softest given the time, around 1930.
stephanie_in_ga
18 years ago
It's ironic. Being heavy seems to start early puberty, it also is a result of infertility later on.

Bestlawn said "I don't get it."

1) I think the poster really meant that the result of excess weight is higher risk of infertility, not what is literally written, that weight is a result of infertility. ;o)

2) I understand the irony to be that body fat helps start the body into childbearing years, but is later identified as a risk factor for infertility. If body fat helps get the cycle started for conception, seems contradictory that body fat would be a hinderence for conception later. But the medical facts are what they are.

40 years? There's another irony! LOL. Who the heck really needs 40 childbearing years? Let's start a petition to start older and stop younger. LOL. I want more control over those start/stop times. I'm done, I want to stop now. And DD can't start until I sign the permission form. LOL!
bulldinkie
18 years ago
I remember I did in 6 th grade,I wasnt ready for that crap.My daughter was a year or 2 older.We both are 5 '11.I was early bloomer too as far as boobs,dad said the bees stung me.
petaloid
18 years ago
I don't have children of my own, but I've taught at elementary schools for 30 years and have definitely noticed the girls going through puberty earlier all the time.

Many 4th and 5th grade girls (9-10 years old) already get their periods now and their bodies are getting curvy. That was something we used to expect in middle school.

As for me, I was almost 14 when I started puberty -- very skinny too, at 5'6" and 100 pounds at most.
bestlawn
18 years ago
Stephanie, Sue always makes too much sense for me to have questioned what she wrote. I should have known what she meant. Thanx for the explanation. And LOL at your last paragraph. Where do I sign the petition???
sue36
18 years ago
Thanks Stephanie, you explained it better than I did! My amateur's understanding of it is that fat causes you to have excess estrogen, which causes early fertility/puberty. Later on, that excess estrogen prevents you from getting pregnant even if you have regular cycles. Probably disclosing too much, but that is what the doctors believe is the cause of my unexplained infertility. Fifty pounds ago I got pregnant easily (lost the pregnancy, however). Now, 'nothin.
wildchild
18 years ago
Many obese women with fertility problems suffer from PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome). The weight gain is not because of too much estrogen but the exact opposite. These women's bodies produce too much male androgen (testosterone).

Most girls put on a little extra weight just before their period. They get a little "fatter", have a growth spurt of developement and get their periods.
orie
18 years ago
Interesting post as it's the topic of conversation lately with some friends....

I was 9 yrs. old (3rd grade). I wasn't heavy. I remember it was horrible. This was back in 1970. I was prepared for it but was also the only girl in the class with it.

My DD got hers last April. She was 11 and also prepared for it. We knew it was coming. Very well developed! Most of her friends had already started! Amazing!

Early onset of puberty?!

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