BMJ  2007;334:282 (10 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.334.7588.282-b

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Essential oils implicated in prepubertal gynaecomastia

When a boy aged only 4 years presented with gynaecomastia, doctors suspected he had been exposed to exogenous oestrogens. Oral contraceptives, soya products, and marijuana were all considered but dismissed by his mother. As the gynaecomastia got slowly worse, she eventually remembered the lavender oil she had been rubbing on her son's skin. Since this was the only possible source of the trouble, she was advised to stop, and the gynaecomastia resolved. Two further cases of prepubertal gynaecomastia followed: a 10 year old who had been washing and styling his hair with shampoo and gel containing lavender and tea tree oils; and a 7 year old who had been using lavender soap. Both got better after they stopped using the scented products, although their gynaecomastia took several months to resolve completely.

None of the three boys were rechallenged, but laboratory experiments in human breast cancer cells later confirmed that both lavender and tea tree oil are weakly oestrogenic and antiandrogenic. Both properties could have disrupted the boys' sex steroids and caused (or at least contributed to) the development of gynaecomastia, say the researchers. Doctors should be aware of a possible link between prepubertal gynaecomastia and lavender or tea tree oil.

References

N Engl J Med 2007;356:479-85[Abstract/Full Text]

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