Several studies suggest that the number of girls starting puberty early has more than doubled amid the coronavirus outbreak - and experts are unsure exactly why
Although this hypothesis can’t be ruled out, especially because many childhood covid-19 cases are mild and may be missed, it seems unlikely, says Kaplowitz.
“I don’t think the effect of covid on female puberty is restricted to girls who actually had the infection,” says Kaplowitz. “Especially since, in the earlier stages of the pandemic, children were much less likely to become infected than adults.”since 1977, although there is little data on the effect of other traumatic events like wars or recessions.
“When the data is looked at for the past year, particularly in places where kids almost all went back to school and life returned to more normal, I would predict that the rate of precocious puberty will return to what it had been previously,” says Kaplowitz. “But we obviously don’t know.”