Secondary Sexual Characteristics and Menses in Young Girls Seen in Office Practice: A Study from the Pediatric Research in Office Settings Network (Pediatrics 1997)

A cross-sectional study by 225 pediatricians analyzed data from 17,077 girls aged 3-12 years to describe secondary sexual characteristics and menstruation.

The study concludes that at age 8, 48.3% of African-American girls and 14.7% of white girls had begun development. At every age for each characteristic, African-American girls were more advanced than white girls. Menses occurred at 12.16 years (SD, 1.21) in African-American girls and 12.88 years (SD, 1.20) of age in white girls.

Since girls are developing pubertal characteristics at younger ages than currently used norms, practitioners may need to revise their criteria for referral of girls with precocious puberty, with attention to racial differences.