Psychosocial dimensions of early-onset puberty and its treatment.

Medical journals and popular media present early-onset puberty as a source of substantial parental, medical, and social concern—even a crisis. An article written by parents and a related editorial commentary in Archives of Disease in Childhood, for example, describe the condition as “devastating” and “frightening”, and suggest that clinicians often fail to adequately support affected families. News media and science journalists similarly describe parents struggling to come to terms with their child’s early sexual development, arguing that early-onset puberty entails a disturbing loss of innocence. Even publications from health activists suggests that parents feel “alarm, distress, distaste, guilt, and confusion”. In each case, early-onset puberty is associated with a tragic diminution of childhood, a difficult-to-manage mismatch between physical bodies and psychosocial position, and a disturbing and untimely initiation of teenage sexuality.