Estrogenic Essential Oils Give Boys Bigger Breasts

The suspected effect in this study is blamed on some chemical within the oils that the body processes as it would estrogen, the female hormone that promotes breast growth.

Lavender and tea tree oils found in many shampoos, soaps and lotions can temporarily leave boys with enlarged breasts in rare cases, apparently by disrupting their hormonal balance, a preliminary study suggests.

While advising parents to consider the possible risk, several hormone experts emphasized that the problem appears to happen infrequently and clears up when the oils are no longer used. None of those interviewed called for a ban on sales.

The study reported on the condition, gynecomastia, in three boys ages 4, 7 and 10. They all went back to normal when they stopped using skin lotions, hair gel, shampoo or soap with the natural oils.

These plant oils, sometimes called “essential oils,” are added to many health-care products, usually for their scent. The oils are sometimes found in other household products or sold in purer forms. Tea tree oil is sometimes used in shampoos for head lice.

The findings are reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The three boys were taken to their doctors with overdeveloped breasts that looked like those of girls in early puberty. They were sore in one case. For each boy, doctors could tie the problem only to their use over several months of the natural-oil products.The researchers suspected that the oils might be upsetting the boys’ hormonal balance.

Another source fro this news report:

Repeated use of products containing lavender oil or tea tree oil may spur breast growth in prepubescent boys, experts report in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The effects fade when boys stop using the products, note the researchers.

"This report raises an issue of concern, since lavender and tea tree oil are sold over the counter in their 'pure' form and are present in an increasing number of commercial products, including shampoos, hair gels, soaps, and body lotions," write researchers Derek Henley, Ph.D., and others. Henley works at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"We want to encourage doctors who may be seeing patients with gynecomastia to ask their patients about the products they are using," the researcher said.

One of the boys was 4 years old. His mother had applied "healing balm" containing lavender oil to his skin shortly before the boy's breasts developed and grew to about an inch in diameter.

Another boy was 10 and had been using a hair-styling gel daily that contained lavender and tea tree oils.

The third boy — nearly 8 — had been using lavender-scented soap and skin lotions. His fraternal twin had used the same products but didn't develop breasts.

The boys' breasts receded within months after they stopped using the products.

Henley's team conducted lab tests on human breast cells exposed to lavender and tea tree oils. The tests showed that lavender and tea tree oils may boost estrogen (a sex hormone that promotes female characteristics and is linked to breast development) and hamper androgens (sex hormones that promote male characteristics and inhibit breast growth).

The researchers call for more observational studies to track prepubertal gynecomastia in boys using such products.

Henley and colleagues don't mention specific products in their report, and they're not ruling out the possibility that the boys' breast growth may have stemmed from other causes.

It's often hard to pinpoint the exact cause of gynecomastia, the researchers note.

However, "We conclude that repeated topical exposure to lavender and tea tree oils probably caused prepubertal gynecomastia in these boys," write Henley and colleagues.
"We do not anticipate any long-term effects on hormone levels" in the boys, Henley says in an NIEHS news release.

Chemical in tooth coating stunts sex organs in mice -A report from 1998

A chemical compound used in protective coatings on teeth and other consumer products stunts the sexual development of male mice, a science magazine said Wednesday.

Frederick Vom Saal and researchers at the University of Missouri found bisphenol A, which mimics the effects of the female hormone estrogen in test tube studies, seems to disrupt normal hormonal functions in male fetuses whose mothers were
fed the chemical. Vom Saal said doses of bisphenol A used in the study were proportionally equivalent to the amount swallowed by patients in the first hour after treatment with a sealant containing the chemical.

Research on the internet shows that the prevailing theory about the estrogenic effects of teeth coatings is "minimal at best". We concur - EXCEPT, its the cumulative effect from all sources of estrogenic compounds that does damage.

Shampoo is just the latest.

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