Eight Going On Eighteen:
Our Daughters and Early Puberty

I have a beautiful, high-spirited, thoughtful eight year old daughter. She loves Harry Potter, rainbow sherbet and desperately wants a dog. And at eight years old, she has breasts.

When I first noticed that she had breasts, I found out everything I could about puberty – wasn’t this a little young? I talked to our pediatrician. I talked to other parents, neighbors and work colleagues. I combed the internet. What I found out didn’t make me happy.

In a fascinating – albeit alarming – report commissioned by the Breast Cancer Fund, I learned that girls get their first periods today, on average, a few months earlier than did girls 40 years ago. More shocking, they get their breasts one to two years earlier. In thirty years, onset of puberty has fallen to just under 10 years for U.S. white girls and just under nine years for black girls. Wow!

My husband, bless his heart, tried to reassure me. So what if she starts to develop a little early, that’s not so bad, is it?

At first, I thought he had a point. But then I learned more. The reason the Breast Cancer Fund commissioned the report is because early puberty is a known risk factor for breast cancer. But that’s not all. Early puberty has also been shown to raise the risk of a variety of other conditions including: polycystic ovary syndrome; high risk adolescent behaviors such as smoking, drinking, drugs, crime and unprotected sex; eating disorders; depression and anxiety; and lower academic education.

So of course, as a protective mother, my next question was what’s causing it and is there anything I can do to help my daughter. The causes of early puberty are varied – obesity, premature birth and low birth weight, television viewing, psychosocial stressors such as family dysfunction, and formula feeding. But one potential contributing factor caught my eye – exposure to everyday chemicals in our environment – especially, endocrine disrupting chemicals. I knew from work that I do for the Reproductive Health Technologies Project that endocrine disruptors are a class of chemicals that can mimic or block hormones in our bodies that regulate a variety of systems, including our reproductive health system.

Endocrine disruptors are prevalent in our everyday lives – cosmetics, shampoos, cleaning products, baby bottles and children’s toys, pesticides, vinyl shower curtain and the list goes on. I was particularly distraught to find out that the Nalgene water bottle my daughter took to school every day contained bisphenol-A, an endocrine disrupting chemical that may contribute to early puberty.

As a result of my research, I made significant changes in our life. I changed our personal care products, our kitchen utensils, our water bottles, our bedding, our hand soap, shampoos and sun lotions. I got rid of most of our plastic – at least everything with a recycle 7 or recycle 3 on it. I learned the names of complex chemicals and accrynyms such as BPA, phthalates (just try to pronounce that one!), dioxin and PBDEs. I took several lists to the store each time I shopped. But wait, why should I have to be a scientist to shop for my kids? This is crazy.

All of the changes we made in our family life are good and important – they are not enough. And that makes me mad. As individuals, we cannot protect our children for these chemicals – but together we can. So if you want to be part of the solution – or even find out more information – come this Thursday, March 20th to the Palo Alto Art Center to hear Jeanne Rizzo, the Executive Director of the Breast Cancer Fund. The event starts at 6:30 pm and is sponsored by Acterra, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte and the Reproductive Health Technologies Project. It is the first in a three part series on reproductive health and the environment. The other two series – on fertility and pregnancy (April 24) and pesticides in our children’s live (May 7) – will also be held on at the Palo Alto Art Center.

I may not be able to stop my daughter from entering womanhood too soon, but perhaps, I can help inspire other parents like myself to stop this crazy proliferation of chemicals – the effects of which we are only beginning to understand.