By Debbie Schlussel
Last summer, I wrote about a National Institutes of Health study showing that the use of topical grooming and hygiene products containing lavender and/or tea tree oil causes the growth of breasts in pre-pubescent boys. The condition is known as gynecomastia (and is also caused by marijuana and soy products–attention potheads and granola-heads).
The moral of the story is that if you use women’s style, scented body wash on your boys, they will develop women’s style body parts. Mother nature rebels against the feminization of America’s men from the point of boyhood.
In the last couple of days, the story has hit the news again. But it’s not new. It’s just that the same men who conducted the study I cited in July, 2006–Kenneth Korach, Dr. Clifford Bloch et al–have now published the results of their study in the respected New England Journal of Medicine.

Man-Boob Alert:
Calvin Klein Eternity for Men Product Line Contains Lavender
And the specifics of the study, as summarized by the Palm Beach Post, are even more striking than reported last July. The Post points out the link to cancers:

A West Palm Beach dermatologist warns that the study should raise a red flag for adults, too. Because some cancers can be influenced by estrogen, further study is needed, said Dr. Kenneth Beer.
“The first thing they ask when you get a breast tumor is, ‘Is it hormone-sensitive?'” Beer said. “All-natural doesn’t mean harmless.”
The paper’s authors detail three case studies of boys who had used balms, soaps and shampoos containing lavender and tea-tree oils.
All three began developing breast buds that could not be explained by their own hormones. When they stopped using the lavender and tea-tree products, the breast growth went away.
The first boy was four and a half. His pediatrician noted that he had breast tissue that was 2 cm by 2 cm on a first visit. Three months later, those breast buds had grown to 2.5 cm square, and were then tender.
“The patient’s mother reported applying a compounded ‘healing balm’ containing lavender oil to his skin starting shortly before the initial presentation,” the authors noted. Several months after discontinuing the balm, the breast tissue was gone.
The second boy, who was 10, had breasts that were 3.5 cm by 4 cm wide, and 3.5 cm in depth. He reported using a shampoo and styling gel with both lavender and tea tree oil. Once he discontinued use of the products, the breasts receeded.
The third boy, who was seven, developed small breasts after using lavender soap every day, and lavender-scented lotions from time to time.
“His fraternal twin used the same skin lotions, but not the lavender-scented soap, and did not have any gynecomastia,” the authors noted.
The scientists, based in North Carolina and Colorado, then studied the oils’ effects on human cancer cells in a laboratory. They found that the oils activated estrogen receptors and inhibited androgens on the cells.
“We conclude that repeated topical exposure to lavender and tea tree oils probably caused prepubertal gynecomastia in these boys,” the authors wrote.

A good reason to keep your boys away from girlie-man grooming products: that they will literally–physically–turn into girlie-men.