A survey of premature sexual maturity in Chinese children

  The so-called precocious puberty refers to the development of breasts, followed by pubic and axillary hair growth and the first menstruation in girls before the age of 8, and the enlargement of testicles and penis, pubic and axillary hair growth, penile erection and even sperm discharge in boys before the age of 9. According to the survey, from the late 80s to the early 90s, the trend of precocious puberty in children in China has been increasing year by year, and in 1999, the number of outpatient clinics in Shanghai Children’s Hospital sometimes reached hundreds of times a day. This phenomenon also occurs in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other cities.  There is idiopathic precocious puberty, i.e., true precocious puberty, and pseudo-precocious puberty. True precocious puberty is due to the activation of the thalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis, which controls sexual maturation, and the increase in gonadotropin secretion causes the gonads to develop gradually. The medical community believes that it may be related to the genetic and individual qualities of the child with the condition. True precocious puberty is difficult to treat and can only be controlled with medication.  Most of the children with precocious puberty have been found to have pseudoprecocious puberty, which means that some of the characteristics are early and there is no real maturation of sexual function. Many cases of pseudoprecocious puberty are caused by inappropriate exposure to exogenous sex hormone drugs or preparations containing sex hormones, or by frequent use of tonic products. An 8-month-old child with enlarged breasts and bleeding vulva turned out to be a mother who was breastfeeding her child while still taking birth control pills. Another mother found that her 3-year-old daughter was bleeding from her lower body, but it turned out that the girl had taken the pill as a sugar ball.  Pseudo precocious puberty can be prevented. Some nutritional supplements contain substances similar to sex hormones, such as the popular children’s multivitamin nutritional pills on the market, which contain substances related to inducing precocious puberty in children. Therefore, experts suggest that parents only need to arrange their children’s balanced diet three times a day, not too much to make up for the extra stuff. In addition, some livestock are raised with growth hormones to stimulate precocious maturity, which also have a catalytic effect on children.  The biggest danger of precocious puberty is that it can affect a child’s lifelong height. A child’s early puberty and early growth period lead to early closure of their epiphysis and no longer grow taller.