Male puberty is understudied — but when it starts may predict long-term health risks

Puberty is an inevitable part of human maturation, and it increasingly appears to hold a key to understanding individuals’ risk for developing poor health outcomes later in life. Research in girls has established a significant relationship between disease risk and the timing of puberty onset. Early puberty has been connected to a higher risk for illnesses including endometriosis, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer, depression, eating disorders, uterine fibroids, and osteoarthritis, as...