What is the onset of central precocious puberty?

Central precocious puberty is defined as the development of secondary sexual characteristics in girls by the age of 8 years and in boys by the age of 9 years. The age of onset can be as early as the prenatal fetal period. In this way, boys show marked enlargement of the external genitalia at birth, and girls can have menstruation shortly after birth. In the mid-twentieth century, the internationally reported incidence of precocious puberty in children accounted for about 1/5000-10000 of the total number of children, but with the development of social economy and the progress of medical diagnosis technology, the incidence of precocious puberty is on the rise. At present, the prevalence of precocious puberty in children in China is about 1%. However, in some “developed” areas, it can even be as high as 3%, presumably related to factors such as environmental hormone pollution and unhealthy lifestyles. Generally speaking, precocious puberty is more common in girls, accounting for about 75-90% of the total number of cases. Most of the children with precocious puberty have idiopathic precocious puberty for which no clear cause can be found, accounting for more than 70% of the total number of cases. Only about less than 30% of the total number of patients, especially males, can find a definite cause of precocious puberty, such as intracranial tumors. With the improvement of medical diagnostic techniques, there are occasional reports of patients previously diagnosed with idiopathic precocious puberty who were later found to have intracranial tumors. The nature of these tumors, most of which are benign, is slow to develop. It has also been reported that despite adherence to regular follow-up and careful cranial imaging, there have been patients who were not finally found to have a tumor until 10 years after the initial visit.