Health Risks of Underage Drinking in Adolescent Women

As they reach adolescence, many teenage girls will be faced with a multitude of social pressures and personal curiosities. Often, these can involve substances such as alcohol and drugs. According to Drink Aware, the vast majority of teenagers don’t wait until they’re 18 before embarking on the drinking scene and by the time they reach 15, 8 out 10 teenagers have tried alcohol.

Short of locking your teenage daughters in the house, it can be difficult to stop them engaging in this sort of behaviour. However it is important to know the potential risks of underage drinking so that you can educate them on the damage that they could be doing to their physical, mental, emotional and sexual health. Often it can be difficult to make a young person care too deeply about their personal wellbeing – a lot of teenagers feel that they are invincible. But we hope we have compiled a few of the serious and less glamorous side effects of underage drinking that may make them sit up and take heed of your warnings.

INFERTILITY & SEXUAL HEALTH

In a study reported by Livestrong, evidence suggests that even low to moderate alcohol consumption can disrupt the reproductive hormones in women responsible for regulating menstrual cycles. This is particularly relevant during puberty when the body is developing, hormones are circulating and the menstrual cycle is just establishing itself. If a young woman were to disrupt this progress repeatedly then she could find herself suffering from menstrual disorders, irregular bleeding, ovarian problems and even fertility issues in later life.

Research also suggests that girls you binge drink are up to 63% more likely to become teenage mothers. It seems that when the alcohol begins flowing, inhibitions, good judgement and thoughts of safe sex go out of the window. Statistics show that 2007 11% of teenagers have admitted to engaging in unsafe sex after drinking and therefore exposing themselves to unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. With BBC Health suggesting that up to one in ten sexually active people carry Chlamydia, it really only takes one careless encounter to contract a disease that can have all sorts of dangerous side effects including infertility.

GROWTH STUNTING, WEIGHT GAIN & SKIN

Puberty is a busy time with hormonal changes, growth and organ development taking place. Drinking alcohol prior to or during puberty can disrupt the hormonal balance and therefore stunt the growth and development of bones and vital organs. This is particularly relevant in girls as they are generally built smaller then boys and so the alcohol in their systems has a more concentrated effect.

Alcohol is full of empty calories and has no nutritional value. The body seeks to break it down and dispose of it as soon as possible because it has no health benefits and cannot be stored in the body. In the process of metabolising the alcohol, the body doesn’t get chance to break down anything else that has recently been ingested and so weight gain and excess alcohol consumption often go hand in hand.

Alcohol also depletes the body of Vitamin A which is responsible for replenishing new skin cells. To deprive the body of this could mean seeing an unpleasant effect on the complexion which could become dry, dull and prematurely aged.


BRAIN DAMAGE AND MENTAL DISORDERS

Like the rest of the body, the brain also develops throughout puberty and continues to form into a person’s mid 20’s. According to Too Smart To Start, drinking alcohol throughout this period of brain development can affect the structure and functionality of the brain which can have lasting consequences. Each part of the brain is responsible for different things from emotions, memories, rational thought, self regulation and problem solving. To damage a certain part of the brain could permanently impair one of these modes of thought. For example, if the hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for forming memories) is damaged then a person may find they have trouble remembering things in later life.

Similarly, alcohol has been strongly linked to a variety of mental disorders such as depression and anxiety due to its interference with brain chemistry and the fact that it increases the likelihood of suffering from low mood, insomnia, loss of appetite and social dysfunctional – all of which go hand in hand with depression.


ORGAN DAMAGE AND INCREASE RISK OF DISEASE

Alcohol has a strong, detrimental effect on the liver (particularly a liver that is still developing) as most people are aware of. But it can also increase the risk of mouth, throat and breast cancer, diabetes and heart disease through increased blood pressure and high cholesterol. These conditions are irreversible and can be potentially life threatening.

So if you think that your teenage daughter might be about to start experimenting with binge drinking or alcohol then do make sure that she is aware of the risks involved. It is very difficult to stop young people being curious about things like this but with the right education they can at least know the potential dangers that they are exposing themselves to and hopefully drink responsibly, in moderation and ideally, not at all.