Girls started puberty EARLIER during Covid as scientists blame unhealthier lifestyles in pandemic lockdowns

A large number of girls started puberty early during the pandemic, which could be due to stress or reduced physical activity.

One study looked at 133 girls in Italy referred to a specialized pediatric unit because their breasts had started to develop before the age of eight.

In the four years before the pandemic, from January 2016 to March 2020, 72 girls were diagnosed with “rapidly progressive” early puberty, where, for example, their height increased too quickly or they had a high level of hormones related to adolescence. .

That meant fewer than two girls a month were being identified as rapidly going through puberty too young.

But, in the shorter period between March 2020 and June 2021, that had jumped to almost four girls a month being diagnosed, 61 in all.

The researchers note that during this period, when Italy, like the UK, lived largely under lockdown, the girls seen spent an average of two hours a day using electronic devices and 88.5 per cent ceased all physical activity. .

There is a great lack of knowledge about what causes boys to go through puberty early, but some experts have suggested that the blue light from screens and lack of exercise could disrupt girls’ normal hormonal development.

Dr Mohamad Maghnie, who led the study from the University of Genoa and the Giannina Gaslini Institute in Italy, said: “The role of stress, social isolation, increased conflict between parents, economic status and increased The use of hand and surface sanitizers represent potentially more interesting hypotheses about why early puberty is increasing in youth.

“There is an interesting evolutionary hypothesis that when girls are highly stressed, they have their period early so they can reproduce and protect the future of the species.”

Boys generally enter puberty earlier than in the past because obesity rates are higher and having too much fat can disrupt the hormones that determine when a child becomes a teenager.

However, the study did not find a significant difference in the weight of girls diagnosed at puberty before the pandemic and during the pandemic.

There is also the possibility that the parents of the girls, by spending more time at home with them during lockdown, may be more likely to notice the first signs of puberty, which is why their daughters were diagnosed earlier.

However, a similar increase in the rate of children going through puberty early during Covid has been seen in countries like India and Turkey.

In all, the researchers looked at 289 girls suspected of going through puberty because they developed ‘breast buds’, a very early sign of breast development, before the age of eight.

The number of these girls referred to a pediatric endocrinology unit increased nearly 80 percent during the pandemic compared to the previous four years.

The number diagnosed with rapidly progressive early puberty was 30 percent higher, according to the study published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Before the pandemic, only 41 percent of girls referred to the clinic were found to have rapidly progressive early puberty, but that rose to 53.5 percent during Covid.

During the pandemic, the girls were also diagnosed about four months earlier, when they were seven years and eight months old on average, rather than almost the age of eight.