Early puberty in boys is a lot less common than early puberty among girls. There are a number of reasons for this.
First, all of the environmental factors that are pushing girls toward puberty at younger ages work in exactly the opposite direction for boys. The type of chemical exposures rampant throughout our environment are all estrogen mimics. Whereas these exposures could be reasonably expected to speed up the sexual maturation process in girls, they would have precisely the opposite effect in boys, disrupting normal masculine development (if it has any effect at all). The research on chemical exposures among children show they have an overall de-emasculating effect. In fact, in frogs and other reptiles they can even change males into females. (See our book: Toxic Environment)
Early puberty in girls is also being driven by our obesity epidemic, since body weight is a major factor determining both the onset of puberty as well as menstruation. But in boys, body weight has much less to do with reproductive maturation, and doesn’t have the same influence.
What is early puberty in boys?
Boys typically enter puberty at around age 12. Some may enter this phase as early as age 9, and others at 13-16. But anything earlier than 9 is considered abnormally early. Precocious puberty in boys is officially defined as the emergence of secondary sex characteristics such as penis growth, pubic hair, and vocal changes in a boy 9 or younger. (Weiss, 2023)
What causes early puberty in boys?
If you’re noticing signs of puberty in a younger child, such as a 5, 6, 7 or 8-year-old, it’s almost always the result of an environmental exposure of some kind, and the source of this needs to be investigated. Most commonly it’s the consequence of exposure to weight training supplements used by the father or another male caregiver. There are a number of testosterone-based skin creams, as well as other hormonal supplements that could trigger early puberty in a younger boy.
If a child somehow got into these, it could jump-start the process of puberty. There are case records of puberty among preschool-age boys who have been exposed to such products. Yet a child doesn’t have to go snooping around in Dad’s testosterone cream or apply such products themselves to be exposed. The skin is the largest organ, and many people don’t realize that the skin doesn’t just sweat stuff out, it “breathes” and absorbs things into the body that it happens to come into contact with.
Here’s the most common means of exposure: Let’s say Dad is using some type of testosterone-based cream. He applies it to his own skin, but doesn’t realize that when little Johnny comes to cuddle or he picks his son up, he’s inadvertently transferring some of this hormone to his son. It’s also possible that products taken by other means (injections, pills, etc.) could be transferred to the child if it causes the parent to perspirate an excessive amount of these hormones through the skin, which are then absorbed through the child’s skin. Hormones are particularly potent chemicals, and it doesn’t take much to produce changes in the body. “The endocrine system is so fine-tuned that it depends on hormones in infinitesimally small concentrations, as little as a tenth of a trillionth of a gram, as inconspicuous as one second in 3,169 centuries,” write Shabecoff & Shabecoff. “That means its disruption can take place at infinitesimal exposures.” (2010, p. 30) So this type of continuous, low level exposure is certainly enough to trigger precocious puberty.
Early puberty in boys can also be triggered by tumors of the adrenal gland or other medical conditions. If your child is showing signs of early puberty, schedule an appointment with their pediatrician to get to the root of the cause.
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