Doctor Chioma Ofoekii, a medical practitioner currently domiciled in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has in a new espouse revealed why it is normal for an eight-year old girl to start having their monthly flow (menstruation).

Ofoekii while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja, revealed that a little girl’s body can start changing into that of adult too soon, in a process-principle known as ‘precocious puberty’.

THE VENT REPUBLIC understands that menstruation is a discharge that comes from a lady’s vagina, a bleeding that occurs as part of a woman’s monthly cycle. Menstruation naturally starts from puberty to menopause and it is known that every month, the body of a woman is expectant of a sperm take in for pregnancy, making the uterus or womb shed its lining, with the discharge (menstrual blood) a part blood and a part tissue from inside the uterus.

But Doctor Ofoekii has now given a exception to the age range for menstruation as she defines precocious puberty as the ‘onset of secondary sexual characteristics’ that usually occurs before the age of eight in girls and before the age of nine in boys.

“In girls, this will commonly manifest as breast development, menstrual bleeding, pubic and auxiliary hairs, acne and rapid bone and muscle growth”.

“A girl who starts menstruation at a young age is usually because the hormones responsible for puberty are being produced earlier,” she noted.

“The symptoms in boys include enlarged testicles and penis; a deepening voice and facial hair, often on the upper lip”.

She noted that some of the causes, at the level of the brain, are hypothalamic lesions, hydrocephalus, brain tumours, infections and trauma, adding that other causes may include ovarian cysts, tumours of the adrenal gland, congenital adrenal hyperplasia and obesity.

Precocious Puberty can also be based on family genes as the case can also be genetic but she noted that family history may reveal a similar early onset of puberty in the mother and other female siblings, citing some complications to include short stature or otherwise known as dwarfism; low self-esteem, and psychological stress.

(NAN)