Lavender Oils Feminize Boys

This has got to be the strangest story of the week: Skin and hair care products containing lavender and tea tree oil could cause boys to become feminized and begin growing breasts.

Here are some details:

Dr. Clifford Bloch, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Colorado, encountered three unusual patients last year: young boys who were growing breasts.

Aside from their gynecomastia, as the condition is called, there seemed to be nothing else unusual about the boys, who were 10, 7 and 4 years old. But Bloch soon picked up a common thread. All were using products containing lavender or tea tree oil -- a "healing balm" in one case, lavender-scented skin lotions and soap in another, and shampoo and hairstyling gel containing lavender oil in the third.

Apparently, the chemicals in the products disrupted both androgen and estrogen in the boys -- yes, males have estrogen -- and caused the breast growth.
Here's another tidbit:

[A researcher] said the experience reminded him of a study published years ago about an adult male embalmer who suddenly started growing breasts. Investigation found that he had been using an embalming fluid containing compounds in the same chemical family as the oils used by the boys, and that he had neglected to wear rubber gloves, [he] said.