8-Year-Old Daughter and 9-Year-Old Son Already... "Precocious Puberty Increased 2.6 Times Compared to 10 Years Ago"

8 out of 10 Girls, Increase in Boys
Early Diagnosis and Proper Treatment Are Important

As children's physical growth accelerates, cases of 'precocious puberty' are also rapidly increasing.

On the 19th, Park Hee-seung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Namwon, Jangsu, Imsil, Sunchang), analyzed data submitted by the National Health Insurance Service and found that over the past 10 years, from 2014 to July of this year, 1,778,533 patients with precocious puberty (early puberty, E301) have been reported. Precocious puberty refers to the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics before the age of 8 in girls and before the age of 9 in boys.

Assemblyman Park Heeseung

The number of patients with precocious puberty is rapidly increasing. From 96,733 in 2014, the number has risen every year, surpassing 200,000 to reach 212,878 in 2021. Last year, it increased to 251,599, which is 2.6 times higher than in 2014. This year, as of July, 194,803 cases of precocious puberty have been recorded.

Still, 8 out of 10 cases occur in girls, but the proportion of boys is also rapidly increasing, requiring attention. The percentage of male patients, which was only 8.1% in 2014, has steadily risen to 19.3% by the end of last year. Conversely, the proportion of girls decreased from 91.9% to 80.7% during the same period.

Rep. Park emphasized, "The causes of precocious puberty are diverse, including westernized eating habits, childhood obesity, and environmental hormones. If maturation occurs too quickly, there is a risk that the growth plates may close prematurely due to an imbalance in growth hormones." He added, "Since it can be stressful for children, social attention is needed to ensure early diagnosis and appropriate treatment to prevent progression to various diseases."