Monday, August 9, 2010

Early Puberty and Increased Breast Cancer Risk

I ran across this article on msnbc.com today.  It discusses how girls are starting puberty earlier and earlier.  Perhaps as young as 7 or 8 years old.  I know from first hand experience as my daughter started at 9 1/2, which we (my ex and I) thought was early.  My daughter was prepared to handle it due to some medical issues when she was younger, but many girls at that age I would imagine would be scared of what is happening to them.  Certainly, the influx in hormones and chemicals into much of what we buy today has some affect on this.  The article also mentions that proper nutrition itself may be lowering the starting age for puberty.  Talk about a double whammy!  The scariest thing for me is the increased likelihood of developing breast cancer.  My sister was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago.  This is certainly something we will need to discuss with my daughter once she is old enough to really understand it and that self-checks are going to be extra important for her.  Hopefully science will have discovered more about the risk factors, what they are, how they trigger changes, and how we can better eliminate and reduce those risks.  Ideally, we will find a cure.

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