PT Health Life – Puberty is a normal physiological development, usually starting at 10 years old for girls, 12 years old for boys. However, nowadays more and more children are entering puberty earlier.
1. Causes and symptoms of early puberty
Precocious puberty is when there are signs of puberty before age 8 in girls and before age 9 in boys. Precocious puberty appears 10 times more often in girls than in boys. Some cases of precocious puberty are simply premature maturation. However, some diseases can be potential causes of this change.
1.1 Early puberty in girls
Precocious puberty in girls may be due to genital disorders. Can cause increased estrogen secretion or cases of ovarian cysts, brain tumors, thyroid diseases…
Precocious puberty appears 10 times more often in girls than in boys. Girls with early puberty have symptoms such as breast development, breast buds, areolas that are slightly raised and slightly enlarged, the appearance of armpit and pubic hair, changes in the shape of the external genitalia, and menstruation. .
1.2 Puberty in boys
In children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, too much male sex hormone causes boys to experience early puberty. In addition, tumors in the testicles also cause increased secretion of sex hormones and cause early puberty.
In boys, early puberty causes signs such as: Enlarged testicles and penis.
Darkening of the scrotum, appearance of pubic or armpit hair, beard (usually first developing on the upper lip), acne, deepening voice and adult body odor.
2. Effects of early puberty
Early puberty can also cause mental difficulties for children. Children who reach puberty early may be embarrassed or ashamed about their physical changes compared to their peers, leading to changes in their behavior. Girls can be moody and irritable. Boys may be more aggressive.
On the other hand, these children, despite having early physiological puberty, do not develop psychologically. Therefore, children are very susceptible to being taken advantage of by bad guys to sexually harass and abuse… Many girls are sexually abused, leading to pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.
Children with early puberty often have a lower height than the standard because sex hormones stimulate bone growth. When puberty ends, height growth also stops. Therefore, children with early puberty often do not reach their full height when they reach adulthood. In many cases, children who reach puberty early are dwarfed.
Having menstruation before the age of 9 in girls also causes them to have reduced blood flow in the body, leading to a life-threatening decrease in oxygen to the brain.
Furthermore, girls who go through puberty early have an increased risk of breast cancer, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease events later in life when they reach menopause.
Children who go through puberty early are too young to cope with changes in their bodies, combined with limited sex education in many places, making them often lack the skills to take care of their bodies.
3. Parents need to share and care for their children
The hesitation in treating precocious puberty in children is partly due to the fact that parents are not aware of whether precocious puberty is dangerous.
Parents need to pay special attention to their children’s development. When a child is discovered to have unusual symptoms compared to their age, it is necessary to take the child for examination and treatment early to limit the effects of early puberty.
When a child is concluded to have precocious puberty, treatment combined with age-group psychological education is necessary. If the cause of premature puberty is medical, treatment is needed.
Parents need to care, share, explain to their children, guide them on how to take care of their bodies and confide in them as a friend, helping them overcome psychological difficulties during this period.
