PHOTO GALLERY: Heaven Taylor through the years. Click arrows along sides of photos to see the next image.
Taylor recalls having her first period at school, long before she expected it.
“I remember that like it was yesterday,” Taylor says. “When it happened, I thought I was dying. I freaked out and called my mom from the bathroom. She wasn’t that surprised, though. She said something like, ‘Well, you’re a woman now.’ And I said, ‘I don’t want that!’ Then she said, ‘Well, there’s no going back now.’ ”
Taylor recalls having her first period around age 10, which is unusually early. “Typically, menarche starts at about age 12 for Black girls,” Biro says.
What’s Next?
This study represents one of the last major reports from the Growing Up Female project. There are no current plans, nor funding, to track the participants for the rest of their lives.
More study will be needed to determine if managing IGF-1 has value in preventing early puberty, Biro says. Likewise, other research projects may be needed to address certain limitations of this research.
For example, the Cincinnati study was unable to recruit large numbers of Latina and Asian girls, so some of the findings may not apply to them. The study did not attempt to search for genetic variations that may or may not contribute to early puberty risk. It also does not address ongoing questions, studied primarily in adults, about cancer risks posed by breast density.
To Biro, the important lesson for families is that learning more about the hormone combinations that drive early puberty will help clinicians to discover approaches that help more women reduce their risk of breast cancer.
“Risk is not fate,” Biro says. “There are steps people can take to minimize their risks.”