Personal care products cause early puberty in girls

Soaps and shampoos can affect puberty?

Many adolescents reach puberty earlier today than they did a few years ago. Physicians and experts asked themselves what causes such an earlier puberty. Researchers have now found that some common soaps, shampoos and other personal care products in adolescent girls can contribute to earlier onset of puberty.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found in their recent research that some soaps and other personal care products may be the reason why girls enter puberty earlier and earlier. The experts published the results of their study in the English-language journal "Human Reproduction".

Puberty is certainly not an easy time for adolescents. Pimples and mood swings are just a few of the possible effects of puberty. (Image: New Africa / Fotolia.com)

What do phthalates, parabens and phenols do??

Certain chemicals, known as phthalates, parabens, and phenols, appear to have an influence on the onset of puberty in young girls. Some common soaps, shampoos and other personal care products contain these substances. Affected products increase the risk of certain types of cancer and other developmental problems, in addition they can cause early puberty of girls, the experts report.

What are these chemicals used for??

Parabens are used in preservative products and phenols are included for shelf life in personal care products. Phthalates are used in beauty products such as cosmetics, nail polishes and perfumes to enhance the appearance of the substance. It is believed that these chemicals are called endocrine disruptors because they can affect the body's natural hormone regulation. This can cause advanced reproductive maturation in adolescents. This causes early signs of puberty in girls. For example, menstruation begins at the age of eight to eleven years for such girls.

Chemicals already harm the baby in the womb

The effects of these chemicals on female reproductive hormones are not limited to direct consumers, but also harm female infants whose mothers used these products during pregnancy. It is important to understand these effects because it is already known that the age at which puberty starts in girls has declined in recent decades. One hypothesis is that chemicals could play a role in the environment, and the latest findings support this idea, the doctors say. Early puberty in girls increases the risk of mental health problems and risk taking as a teenager. In addition, it increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer in the long term, explains study author Professor Dr. med. Kim Harley from the University of California, Berkeley.

Over 90 percent of the samples taken contained endocrine disruptors

The researchers monitored 179 girls and 159 boys medically from birth to puberty. The physicians took urine samples to measure levels of phthalates, parabens and phenols. They also took samples of the pregnant mothers, even before the children were born. Over 90 percent of the samples contained these endocrine disruptors. Samples showing twice the concentration of phthalates belonged to girls who had pubic hair much earlier than is typical for girls. Certain phenols caused an earlier onset of the first menses of one month. Parabens seemed to have the most serious effects, causing girls to develop breasts, pubic hair and their first menstruation about a month earlier.

In boys no similar effects could be observed. Phthalates, parabens and phenols were detected in 96 percent of the women in the study. There is no doubt that it is not easy to avoid contact with these chemicals. (As)