Early Puberty (Issue: 31 August 2010)

Early Puberty (Little Red Dot issue on 31 August 2010)
Done by: 4 Humility

Being one of the developed countries, there is a trend in Singapore where more girls are reaching puberty at a younger age. This increase has been observed over the past decade. While most girls “reach puberty at the age of 10 or 11”, “more girls here are growing breasts and/or pubic hair at age seven” (page 4). The early onset of puberty may bring with it a set of problems e.g. growing up shorter and the possibility of a higher risk of breast cancer. Reaching puberty at an earlier age may also have an emotional impact on the girls as they are “too young to deal with the surge of hormones they experience at that stage of life, and could turn aggressive” (page 4).

Some questions to think about:
(1) What are your concerns about reaching puberty at a younger age?
(2) What are some questions you have about reaching puberty?
(3) What do you think is more difficult - being an early developer, or reaching puberty later than everyone else in your class? Why do you think that?