Obese girls start menstruating earlier, develop breasts slowly, have acne and excess hair

Obese girls start menstruating earlier, develop breasts slowly, have acne and excess hair

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How WEIGHT can affect puberty: obese girls tend to start menstruation earlier, but develop breasts more slowly, study reveals

  • The researchers studied 90 girls aged 8 to 15 years, 36 were obese
  • Previous studies have found that girls with obesity start puberty earlier
  • Obese girls had higher levels of some important hormones than thin girls
  • Linked to slow breast maturation, irregular periods, acne and excess body hair

By Joe Pinkstone for Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

Obese girls approaching adolescence have high hormone levels that can cause them to start menstruating before their thinner peers, a new study has found.

Overweight girls are also at increased risk of irregular menstrual cycles, delayed breast development, acne and excess hair during puberty.

Previous research has also found that fatter young people start puberty earlier, but the new study is the first evidence of why this can happen.

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Overweight girls are more likely to develop acne and excess body hair during puberty than their thinner colleagues, says a study (stock)

Overweight girls are more likely to develop acne and excess body hair during puberty than their thinner colleagues, says a study (stock)

Researchers from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) studied 90 girls aged 8 to 15 years, 36 were obese and 54 were “normal” weight.

They were followed regularly for four years by doctors who performed ultrasound on their breasts and pelvic regions, as well as measuring hormone levels from blood samples. Each girl also revealed when she had her first period.

“Girls with higher total body fat showed higher levels of some reproductive hormones, including follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), inhibin B and male hormones such as testosterone,” said lead author, Dr. Natalie Shaw.

Research in the United States found that girls who carry a lot of dog fat have different hormone levels during adolescence than someone with ideal weight (stock)

Research in the United States found that girls who carry a lot of dog fat have different hormone levels during adolescence than someone with ideal weight (stock)

She adds that girls with higher levels of body fat, as determined by a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan, were also younger at the time of their first menstruation and had delayed breast maturation.

However, body fat and subsequently altered hormonal levels have been found to have no noticeable impact on the development of the uterus and ovaries.

Dr. Shaw adds: ‘The long-term consequences of these differences in puberty markers deserve further study.’

The research was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

A 2007 study followed 354 girls during puberty and found that obese girls had an 80 chance of menstruating before age 12.

There has long been a correlation between weight and puberty, but this was one of the first studies to show that weight probably caused premature puberty, and not the other way around.

However, a 2017 study by Imperial College London found that girls who start puberty earlier are also more likely to be overweight as adults.

According to Dr. Dipender Gill, lead author of the Imperial study, this was evidence that early puberty causes obesity in adulthood.

Both Dr. Gill and Dr. Joyce Lee, lead author of the 2007 University of Michigan study, believe they have identified causality, indicating that being obese as a child causes precocious puberty and this, in turn, causes obesity in adulthood .

However, although the relationship was established, exactly what caused it remained unknown.

OBESITY: ADULTS WITH BMI OVER 30 ARE SEEN AS OBESE

Obesity is defined as an adult with a BMI of 30 or more.

The BMI of a healthy person – calculated by dividing weight in kg by height in meters and the response again by height – is between 18.5 and 24.9.

Among children, obesity is defined as being in the 95th percentile.

The percentiles compare young people with others of the same age.

For example, if a three-month-old child is in the 40th percentile of weight, it means that 40 percent of three-month-old children weigh the same or less than the baby.

About 58% of women and 68% of men in the UK are overweight or obese.

The condition costs the NHS about £ 6.1 billion, out of its approximate budget of £ 124.7 billion, each year.

This is due to the fact that obesity increases a person’s risk of having several fatal diseases.

These conditions include type 2 diabetes, which can cause kidney disease, blindness and even limb amputations.

The research suggests that at least one in six hospital beds in the UK is occupied by a patient with diabetes.

Obesity also increases the risk of heart disease, which kills 315,000 people every year in the UK – making it the number one cause of death.

Carrying dangerous amounts of weight has also been linked to 12 different types of cancer.

This includes the breast, which affects one in eight women at some point in their lives.

Among children, research suggests that 70 percent of obese young people have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, which puts them at risk for heart disease.

Obese children are also significantly more likely to become obese adults.

And if children are overweight, their obesity in adulthood is usually more severe.

In the UK, one in five children starts to go to school with overweight or obesity, which increases to one in three when they turn 10.

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