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More than 4,000 young girls on birth control pills
Shifa Rahaman
January 25th, 2016
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The pill can cause changes to the body’s natural hormone balance
Too high a price to pay? (Photo: Ceridwen)
Statistics from the Health Ministry have recently revealed that 4,175 girls under the age of 15 are on the birth control pill.
Doctors are now saying that they may suffer consequences as a result of their hormones being altered.
In short order
Professor Anders Juul from Rigshospitalet’s department of growth and reproduction warned that girls who have not yet reached full maturity before going on the pills may grow a few centimeters less in height than they would have otherwise.
“I worry that when you expose a lot of little girls who have not yet reached maturity to hormones via the pill, there can be changes to the body’s natural hormone balance. This has an impact when a girl is growing – in height, for example. It is not extreme, but it can shave off a few centimeters from the height at which she would have been otherwise,” he said to Metroxpress.
Reaching puberty earlier
As to the reason why so many girls under 15 are on the pill, Astrid Højgaard, chief physician at the sexology centre at Aalborg University, said that it is primarily administered to regulate menstruation.
“We know that young people are hitting puberty earlier and earlier. Some girls as young as nine years old start menstruating, and menstruation at that age can be very heavy and painful. The pill lessens the intensity of periods and regulates them,” she said.
Professor Juul believes that it is the responsibility of doctors to talk to parents and children about the possible side effects of going on the pills to manage menstruation in young girls.
“I think that the physician has an obligation to disclose all possible side effects to the girl and perhaps her parents when they seek help because of menstrual pain,” he said.
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