Pubertal Development in The Netherlands 1965–1997

Abstract

We investigated pubertal development of 4019 boys and 3562 girls Ͼ8 y of age participating in a cross-sectional survey in The Netherlands and compared the results with those of two previous surveys. Reference curves for all pubertal stages were constructed. The 50th percentile of Tanner breast stage 2 was 10.7 y, and 50% of the boys had reached a testicular volume of 4 mL at 11.5 y of age. Median age at menarche was 13.15 y. The median age at which the various stages of pubertal development were observed has stabilized since 1980. The increase of the age at stage G2 between 1965 and 1997 is probably owing to different interpretations of its definition. The current age limits for the definition of precocious are close to the third percentile of these references. A high agreement was found between the pubic hair stages and stages of pubertal (genital and breast) development, but slightly more in boys than in girls. Menarcheal age was dependent on height, weight, and body mass index. At a given age tall or heavy girls have a higher probability of having menarche compared with short or thin girls. A body weight exceeding 60 kg (ϩ1 SDS), or a body mass index of Ͼ20 (ϩ1 SDS), has no or little effect on the chance of having menarche, whereas for height such a ceiling effect was not observed. In conclusion, in The Netherlands the age at onset of puberty or menarche has stabilized since 1980. Height, weight, and body mass index have a strong influence on the chance of menarche. The development and first appearance of secondary sexual characteristics can be regarded as a reflection of the overall physiologic development in adolescence (1). The continuous process of pubertal development is usually subdivided into discrete numerical stages, as proposed by Marshall and Tanner (2, 3).The assessment of pubertal stages in the individual child or adolescent in the clinic is only useful if recent and reliable reference data from the same population are available for comparison. As in many European countries a positive secular trend with regard to height, accompanied by a decrease of the age at onset of puberty (1, 4, 5), has been observed, nationwide reference data should be collected at 10-to 20-y intervals. If the age at onset of puberty would indeed decrease, the definition of precocious and delayed puberty should be adjusted. In fact, in the United States it was recently proposed to revise the guidelines for the evaluation of girls with precocious puberty (6, 7).Besides clinical reasons, there are also scientific reasons to study pubertal development in a large population-based sample of healthy children and adolescents. First, it is unclear whether the secular trend with regard to body stature is invariably associated with a trend toward earlier pubertal development. Second, there are few data on the association between the markers of the maturation process of the hypothalamopituitary-gonadal axis (breast development in girls and genital stage in boys) and the occurrence of pubic hair. One would suspect that the agreement be...

Valores críticos do índice de massa corporal para classificação do estado nutricional de crianças e adolescentes brasileiros

“…Therefore, analysis of variance within and across generations is the key issue for answering the question of whether or not it is necessary to control for phase of sexual maturity. 20 2) indications that, for the population as a whole, countries such as the USA and Holland do not currently exhibit the tendency towards reducing age at menarche; 21,22 3) in Brazil, the reduction in age at menarche is estimated at 2.4 to 2.7 months per decade. 23,24 Taken together this evidence allows for the assumption that, in the case of Brazil, the impact of intergenerational variation (including variations within and between individuals) should not distort the curves presented here.…”

Developmental variations in environmental influences including endocrine disruptors on pubertal timing and neuroendocrine control: Revision of human observations and mechanistic insight from rodents

“…the 10th to 90th centile range ( Table 2). Distortion of the variance was negative in the studies involving subjects born before the 1970s (Jeurissen, 1969;Vercauteren and Susanne, 1985) and was found to be positive in several more recent studies since 1980 (Roelants et al, 2009;Talma et al, 2013;Mul et al, 2001). Consequently (Fig.…”

Association between an IGF-I gene polymorphism and body fatness: differences between generations

“…This finding was in accordance with our national survey on pubertal development between 1965 and 1997, which showed that the timing of the occurrence of the various stages of pubertal development had stabilized between 1980 and 1997. This despite the general trend of increasing overweight and obesity in the same population (22).…”