Whole milk powder and sex hormones in 51 pre-pubertal children
What it found
Drinking whole milk powder raised progesterone levels in children's blood for a few hours but did not change other sex hormones.
This was measured in 51 pre-pubertal children.
What they found
Studies in people
Blood hormones after three hours
Three hours after drinking the milk, children had higher progesterone in their blood compared to the sugar water group. Other sex hormones in the blood stayed about the same in both groups.
Urine hormones within hours
Within four hours, a breakdown product of progesterone rose slightly in the children's urine after drinking milk. But this rise was not clearly different from the sugar water group.
Urine hormones over days
Morning urine collected over three consecutive days showed no difference between the milk group and the sugar water group. Levels of estradiol and the progesterone breakdown product were about the same.
Other findings
Progesterone found in milk
Tests on the cow's milk used in the trial showed it contained progesterone. It did not contain estrone, estradiol, or testosterone.
What the authors conclude
- They conclude that drinking commercial milk containing progesterone changed children's progesterone levels for hours but not for days.
- The authors say the milk did not affect any other sex hormone levels in these children.
How it was done
Commercial milk can contain pregnancy-related hormones. The authors wanted to see if drinking it regularly might affect hormone levels in children before puberty.
Fifty-one healthy children who had not yet started puberty were randomly split into two groups. One group drank 250 or 600 mL per square metre of body surface area of whole milk powder mixed with water. The other group drank sugar water matched for energy, and researchers checked blood and urine over three days.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- This trial only looked at changes over three days, so it cannot show what happens when children drink milk powder over months or years.
- It measured hormone levels in blood and urine but did not track whether those short-term changes lead to early puberty or other health effects later.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Nanjing Medical University, China; Peking University, China
The paper
- Title
- Short-term serum and urinary changes in sex hormones of healthy pre-pubertal children after the consumption of commercially available whole milk powder: a randomized, two-level, controlled-intervention trial in China
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Wu J, Shi X, Zhang M, et al (2022). Short-term serum and urinary changes in sex hormones of healthy pre-pubertal children after the consumption of commercially available whole milk powder: a randomized, two-level, controlled-intervention trial in China. Food & function. doi:10.1039/d2fo02321kPubMed 36193812DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error