Early puberty could be symptomatic of a tumour.
CHENNAI: Until a few years ago, the expected age for a girl to attain puberty was between 12-16 years, but today girls as young as eight reach puberty. While initially doctors considered such cases unusual, these days they’re beginning to accept this as the norm, attributing the reasons to lifestyle and environmental changes. Yet there are some doctors who urge parents to get their young daughters tested because signs of puberty at a very early age could be symptom for a tumour. “It might not be the case but it’s better to just get it tested,” said Dr Gowri Meena, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Apollo Specialty Hospital, Chennai.
“Children with early puberty must be immediately sent for an MRI scan to check for brain tumour, since the hormones are produced by the pituitary gland,” points out Dr Cherie Mathew John, a Paediatric Endocrinologist, who runs his own paediatric clinic in the city. For those children below six, who start menstruating or showing signs of precocious puberty, a doctor’s visit is a must, he adds. Why? Because if the risk of tumour is obviated, the next worry is stunted growth. Since the body has reached puberty early, the child has a much shorter time to grow than other children. “The ends of our bones on the spinal cord, upper arm, thigh and leg grow to increase our size but when puberty hits, the growth plates at the end of the bones gets stunted and the spinal cord stops growing.
However, there is very little awareness about this,” rues Dr Cherie. Dr Gowri says that early periods could also lead to childhood obesity, which always increases risk of diseases like high cholesterol and hormone-related diseases like PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) and thyroid too, “Having PCOS could result in growth of facial hair and, fluctuations in thyroid could result in unhealthy weight gain or loss,” she says. Due to these problems, it can affect a child psychologically. “Even older girls take time to get adjusted to menstruation. So a child as young as 7-8 will not know how to handle sanitation.