Strollerderby : menstruation

Pregcellent: Eat Well, Period. Prenatal Diet Influences Puberty Onset

Kelly Mills — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:34:00 GMT

Just when the pregnant ladies thought they got enough flack about what they ingest during gestation. Now check this out: Researchers say a mother's prenatal diet can influence the early onset of puberty. Sheesh, I was chalking it up to non-organic milk and Bratz dolls. You mean my nutritional choices during the most hormonally insane period of my life are to blame for my daughter's precocious eye-rolling?

Well, in case you were wondering, it's a high-fat diet that the researchers tie to the age of your offsprings' puberty. And of course we are talking about girls going through early puberty, because no one seems to care if boys sprout a little peach fuzz early and start spending hours in their rooms with blacklight posters at an early age. The folks who studied this say prenatal diet may have more influence on menstruation happening young than early childhood nutrition. Of course, the study was on rats, so we can always hold out hope for an species reprieve from regular pregnancy Ben & Jerry's transgressions.

Don't Throw Away Your "Monthly Miracle!"

Adrienne Martini — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:13:00 GMT

While I was gestating Kid #1, we got at least a dozen pamphlets from Cryo-Cell International. For a small fee, they'd store the baby's cord blood, just in case she needed it later. Yes, we ponied up the cash.

We did it for the same reason so many parents do it. You can just picture the scene in the doctor's office, where you're sitting on the edge of your seat and holding a sick, sick child in your arms. "If only," the doctor would say, his white coat gleaming under the fluorescent lights, "you weren't too cheap to store her cord blood we'd be able to save her life."

This promise to to store a number of anatomical items just in case they will be useful later is all the rage. You can have your kids' baby teeth or your liposuctioned fat or your leftover embryos or your menstrual blood (a.k.a. "your monthly miracle) frozen for future use.

But what use is there for all of this biological detritus, other than a method of separating people from their cash? That's what the New York Times' Andrew Pollack wondered, too. Based on his answers, I no longer feel guilty about not paying the storage fee on my daughter's donation.

Photo credit: Doc Advocate

3-Year-Olds Getting Their Periods?

Madeline Holler — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:27:00 GMT

Here’s something you thought you’d never have to deal with: your 3-year-old going through puberty. Yet it’s a little more common than you think (though, mercifully, still pretty rare).

And it looks like something that doctors might overlook at the well-baby check ups. Somehow, the mothers in this story figured out that their daughters -- their preschoolers! -- we're thiiiiiis close to getting their periods, and then spent a good bit of time and energy convincing their pediatricians.

The average age of puberty for both boys and girls has lowered by two years over the past century.

From the Daily Mail: "In fact, a recent study showed that British girls today start their periods at an average age of ten years and three months, compared to 11 years nine months for their mothers and 12 years for their grandmothers."

But for an untold number, it's happening much earlier than that -- like around 8 years old. And still earlier for a tiny number of those -- at 3. Wow!

Called precocious puberty, endocrinologists don't know why some girls reach this very special time in their young lives at a very alarmingly time in their really young lives. But it can have lasting damages, not just physically -- bones aging rapidly, for example, but also emotionally. Kind of tough coaching a 3-year-old through the changes when she isn't all that facile with language, huh?

Even with the older ones -- like the 8-year-olds, it can be confusing and isolating, some women who developed early as girls say in the article. Plus, they're often much taller, have to use deodorant, get acne (or for boys, grow facial hair) or suffer from cramps when nobody else does.

The good news is that once early onset puberty is diagnosed, it can be controlled with medication, allowing time to catch up with the body and slowing the effects of the early onset puberty.

Momsquak talks about it briefly and trots out the hormones-in-meat theory, but comes to no conclusions. Still, makes you think. Makes you cross your fingers and think.

Photo: Daily Mail

Never Have Your Period AGAIN. Period.

Karen Murphy — Wed, 23 May 2007 16:06:00 GMT

Ask me this question on any other day of the month except today, and you'd likely get another answer, but today (guess what day this is for me? C'mon, guess!) if you asked me if I'd rather not ever see "Aunt Flo" again, I would say, "Yes, now give me that new birth control pill that eliminates a woman's period FOR-EVAH, and put some chocolate on it!"

NOW!!!

Okay, so this isn't exactly news, but it is. For awhile now, doctors have "allowed" women to just skip the placebo pills that stimulate a menstrual cycle and start again with a fresh month's pack, but the FDA has now approved a continual pill, called "Lybrel" (don't you love those purty made-up pharmaceutical names?),that pretty much eliminates menstruation entirely.

No word on expected incidences of pesky "unscheduled bleeding," or what potential havoc this could wreak in your system or how it could affect your future fertility or knowing if you actually do become pregnant so you can stop taking the darn things... Like I said, ask me today and I'm all for it, but calm down these hormones a bit and I'm thinking it might be good to think about this one and gather some facts before jumping on it.