Abstract
Precocious puberty is defined as the onset of breast or pubic hair development before age 8 in girls and the onset of testicular development of more than 3 ml before age 9 in boys. The age limit is based on the data from a 1969 study done by Marshall and Tanner [1]. There is evidence to show that normal puberty in the USA and Europe is occurring earlier in children [2, 3]. A 2012 study suggested that puberty in boys might be occurring 6 months to 2 years earlier than documented in the previous Marshall and Tanner study [4]. In 1999 the Pediatric Endocrine Society proposed lowering the age limit for precocious puberty to be less than 7 years old in white girls and less than 6 years old in African-American girls [5]. Some argue that if the age limit of normal puberty is lowered, children between the ages of 6 and 8 with precocious puberty will be missed, resulting in a loss of height potential [6]. This chapter will describe precocious puberty as it relates to acne and address when an evaluation and treatment for precocious puberty should be undertaken when a young child presents with acne.
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Miyar, M., Levy, M.L. (2014). Precocious Puberty and Acne. In: Zeichner, J. (eds) Acneiform Eruptions in Dermatology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8344-1_53
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8344-1_53
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