Prescribed antibiotics before 3 months of age, girls are 33% more likely to have early puberty
May 18, 2025
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A research team led by Professor Choi Yoon-soo of the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescents at Hanyang University's Guri Hospital recently presented the findings at a joint conference of the European Society of Pediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) and the European Society of Endocrinology (ESE) held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Early puberty (CPP) is a disease in which secondary sexual characteristics appear faster than normal puberty in children, and refers to cases in which girls begin before the age of 8 and boys before the age of 9.
As the incidence of early puberty has increased in recent decades, researchers are investigating various factors to determine the cause.
The study was conducted by a research team from Hanyang University's Guri Hospital and Hanyang University Medical Center, and analyzed data from 322,731 infants and toddlers in Korea who took antibiotics for 0-12 months of age. The researchers followed the child and investigated the development process until the girl was 9 years old and the boy was 10 years old.
As a result, it was found that girls who were prescribed antibiotics before 3 months of age had a 33% higher probability of developing early puberty.
In particular, if antibiotics were taken before 14 days of age, the risk increased by 40%, and the earlier the antibiotic was used, the higher the risk of early puberty. In addition, the risk of early puberty was found to be 22% higher when more than five antibiotic types were used than when less than two types were used.
On the other hand, no association was found between antibiotic use and early puberty in boys.
Professor Choi Yoon-soo of Hanyang University's Guri Hospital, who led the study, explained that "the survey is one of the first to analyze the association between early puberty with large-scale national data on the timing, frequency, and number of types of antibiotic use in infancy.". In addition, a previous study found that complete breastfeeding lowered the risk of early puberty"This suggests that the gut microbial environment or endocrine metabolic pathway may affect adolescent development" he added.
Professor Choi then stressed that `the results of this study suggest that medical staff and parents need to consider long-term effects when making decisions to treat infants and toddlers antibiotics.' The research team plans to further study the impact of antibiotic use on adolescent development in the future, and further analyze how long-term use of antibiotics in childhood is related to growth, metabolism, and endocrine health.
Professor Choi stated "Understanding the biological mechanisms will help to prepare safe antibiotic use guidelines and establish early management strategies for infant health."
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
