Early puberty in girls- What are the risk factors & a TCM view
Recently a friend of my called me distressed because her 9 year old daughter was showing the signs of starting her period. Her mom was obviously concerned because 9 years old is very young to be starting your menstrual cycle and in addition there are studies showing that early puberty is linked to other health conditions later in life. She was further puzzled because her daughter isn’t exposed to or meet most of the risk factors that are often attributed to early menses in girls. She isn’t obese, she isn’t exposed to a lot of environmental toxins, she isn’t impoverished or malnourished, she has a nutritious, well balanced diet…..so what could it be?
As i began to think about this from both a western and eastern perspective the one thing that I hit on that fits into both models is emotional STRESS. Though western medicine hesitates to understand the reasons why stress may contribute to early menses in girls the eastern view makes sense of it because of link with the liver meridian.
There are many meridians and organ systems , (energy paths) involved with menstruation, fertility and hormonal heath of the female body. In this situation lets be specific and examine the role of stress and the liver meridian and the role that it could be playing in the early onset of menstruation.
The Liver system is responsible for the smooth flow of Qi and blood and as well as the distribution of that blood. In addition it provides the blood for menstruation and stores this blood. It also affects how we express our emotions and clams our emotional energies. Just like western medical views state it filters and cleans blood and in doing so it helps with hormone regulation. It is noted in the book, The Fertility Cure, “If the Liver system is not functioning smoothly, neither is the hormonal system.” So lets think about that a minute. If the Liver system is strongly connected with our emotional regulation and at the same time strongly connected to our hormones then it would stand to reason that stress would be strongly connected to menstruation.
So lets place a little girl into a stressful situation, be that a natural tendency to emotional sensitivity, school stress, family stress, living conditions, insecurity, ( you name it) and add in number of other risk factors and we are setting up the perfect storm for young girls to start their periods early.
Western medicine is so quick to find and state the obvious physical and some environmental explanations, this little girl is obese, they have synthetic hormone in diet, they are exposure to environmental toxins that disrupt hormones, they are poor and don’t have access to nutritious food. This may very well be true and they are all very important and should be looked at and considered seriously. But what about the friend who is blessed to not have any of these factors? What now?
What do we say when those aren’t present or minimized? What are the western doctors often overlooking? Emotions and stress! They may be saying to themselves, what does a kid have to to be stressed about? So many things and so many worries-love, security, safety, friendship, understanding, social skills and dynamics. These are all stressors and children are learning how to navigate it all with only what they know and this affects their bodies, which changes hormones and contributes to how it all plays out in the end. As adults we know what affect stress has on our bodies so why not theirs?