Researchers say multiple factors are likely impacting early puberty, including obesity, stress and endocrine-disrupting hormones which are widespread in the environment. SDI Productions/Getty Images/E+ hide caption Girls in the U.S.
are getting their first menstrual period about 6 months earlier on average than they did in the 1950s and ‘60s. And more girls are beginning menstruation before the age of 9, which is considered a very early age. That’s according to a large new study published this week in the journal JAMA Network Open.
“It's important to educate caregivers, parents and care providers on this trend so that we can also prepare our children,” says Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah, the study’s co-author and an assistant professor of environmental, reproductive, and women’s health at Harvard T.H.
Chan School of Public Health. “The younger you are when you get your first period, it's very confusing. There's still a lot of stigma and silence around it,” Mahalingaiah says.
The study is based on data collected from more than 71,000 women enrolled through the Apple Research App on their iPhones, who were asked to recall when they first started menstruating. The researchers found that on average, menstruation was starting at 11.9 years of age in 2000 to 2005.
That’s down from 12.5 years of age in the period between 1950 to 1969. What’s more, the percentage of girls getting their period before the age of 11 grew from 8.
6% to 15.5 %, and those who began menstruati.
