Black girls are reaching puberty earlier
There’s new evidence that girls might be reaching puberty, and developing breasts and pubic hair, much earlier than ever. Dr. Paul Kaplowitz of the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., has suggested that genetic differences between Blacks and Whites may explain early puberty in Black girls. Until 10 years ago, breast development at age 8 was considered an abnormal event that should be investigated by an endocrinologist. Then a landmark study in the April 1997 issue of the journal Pediatrics, written by Marcia Herman-Giddens, adjunct professor at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, found that among 17,000 girls in North Carolina, almost half of Blacks and 15 percent of Whites had begun breast development by age 8. Two years later, the society suggested changing what it considered medically normal. Kaplowitz suggests that the genes involved in insulin resistance, which occurs more often in Black Americans, may predispose Black girls to earlier puberty by affecting their hormone levels. However, other doctors have suggested that the dramatic rise in childhood obesity has contributed to earlier puberty. Research shows that being overweight increases estrogen in girls and estrogen is the chief trigger for breast budding. But Dr. Sandra Steingraber, author of the Breast Cancer Fund’s comprehensive 2007 report “The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls” considers early puberty to be “an ecological disorder” resulting from a complex web of environmental influences, reports New America Media. Pollutants, plastics and chemicals may be the hidden causes of early puberty in girls, and Black girls seem to be more vulnerable. While early menstruation is a known risk factor for breast cancer, no one knows what earlier breast development means for the future of girls’ health. “We’re not backing up all events in puberty,” Steingraber says. “We’re backing up the starting point.” Earlier breast development is now so typical that the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society urged changing the definition of “normal” development. The new “8″ – the medically suggested definition for abnormally early breast development – is 7 for White girls and 6 for Black girls, the society says.

Viagra being considered for women
The drug that turned around the sex lives of many older men has also proved to help women on antidepressants who experience sexual dysfunction. The eight-week, small-scale study found that Viagra, also known as sildenafil, helped women achieve orgasm. “In this study population, sildenafil treatment of sexual dysfunction in women taking SRIs was associated with a reduction in adverse sexual effects,” the study’s authors wrote. Results of the study are in the July 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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