Latest research shows that giving adolescent girls estrogen treatments to keep them from getting too tall could leads to fertility problems later on in life . Estrogen is thought to limit height by altering long bone development.
The study involved 780 women who had been assessed for estrogen therapy as girls and completed a fertility survey later in life. About half had actually been treated with estrogen, and the other half was not treated. Overall, women who had been given estrogen as girls were 80-percent more likely to have been unsuccessful in achieving pregnancy after a year of trying, 80-percent more likely to have consulted with a doctor about fertility problems, and twice as likely to have taken fertility drugs. While most of these women did manage to finally become pregnant, they were 40-percent less likely to conceive in any given menstrual cycle when they were trying to become pregnant than women who didn’t take estrogen.Researchers say their findings indicate that exposure to high-dose estrogens in adolescence is associated with impaired fertility in later life. However researchers also say that fewer girls today are receiving this treatment, as tall stature in women has now gained greater social acceptance.
