Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Preschool puberty

Puberty has been moving up in children, and many people blame the hormones in dairy products. We try to limit Z's exposure to bovine growth hormone by choosing dairy products that are rBGH-free. But it looks like the increasing prevalence of certain drugs, cosmetics and endocrine disruptors are causing breast growth, pubic hair and other symptoms of puberty in children as young as five. This NY Times piece details one case in which doctors realized that, through normal skin contact with her father, a girl absorbed the testosterone from a topical skin cream her dad was using, elevating her testosterone level to 100 times the normal level.

Scary stuff.