But most overt ED's occur in women under the age of 24 and tend to develop at puberty which suggests a biological factor.
And that biological factor, simply, is estrogen more specifically the increase in estrogen that occurs at puberty which is when the majority of true ED's develop
Completely ignores the social, psychological, and brain development factors which factor into EDs
Plus, as far as I know, men also develop EDs around the same time in life.
Unbelievably, some studies indicate that 95% of true ED's are seen in women which is simply enormous (6). Quite in fact, for some time it was actually thought that ED's occurred only in women. We now know that this is false as relatively more men are developing some form of ED in the modern world.
But most overt ED's occur in women under the age of 24 and tend to develop at puberty which suggests a biological factor.
But focusing on women, there is absolutely no doubt that environmental and cultural issue that play
into this with factors such as a mother with an ED, early dieting practices, stressful environments, being
teased about body weight, media images or being involved in traditionally female sports such as
gymnastics, ballet and ice skating that stress thinness and low body weights that are present (9)
In this case, the effects of pre-natal hormone exposure and programming
determine how a woman's biology will be impacted by changes in her hormones later in life. Returning to the topic of eating disorders, Binge Eating Disorder (BED) which is far more prevalent in women is
thought to be related to the combination of a relative lack of androgen exposure during fetal development that puts a woman at higher risk for developing BED at puberty when estrogen levels increase
For lactating women, FSH in the 1st year is in the high normal range and in the 2nd year it is in the normal range of the follicular phase. The luteinizing hormone (LH) remains low during lactation but at weaning, LH concentrations increase as prolactin levels decrease.