Hormone injections to prevent early puberty: What parents need to know

Article by Associate Professor, Doctor, Doctor Nguyen Thi Hoan - Head of Pediatric Outpatient Department, Vinmec Times City International Hospital

The daughter is only 5 years old but has signs of big breasts, the boy is embarrassed because the "small boy" is unusually large. Those are signs that a child has early puberty, parents need to take their child to a doctor as soon as possible for treatment.

If in the past, girls entered puberty at 9-12 years old, boys from 10-13 years old, today, the age of Vietnamese children entering puberty is much earlier. There are children who hit puberty from the age of three, up to five. Children with precocious puberty will show signs of sexual development before the age of 8 in girls and 9 years of age in boys with typical signs such as enlarged breasts, pubic hair growth, increased genital size...
Wake up It causes premature bone growth and premature closure, causing dwarfism in adulthood. Children will have less than 3 years of height growth compared to their peers. Usually girls are 12cm shorter and boys are up to 20cm shorter as adults. In addition, the increase in sex drive in boys leads to a state of emotional crisis for some children. Girls are at risk of sexual abuse.

True precocious puberty - central body: Caused by the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, causing increased secretion of gonadotropic hormones from the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland is likened to the "conductor" signaling the activity of the gonads.
Girls: 80% often for unknown reasons Boys: 70% are often tumors, nerve damage. Peripheral body: The sex hormone is secreted a lot but there is no activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis
Pseudo-precocious puberty in males, testicular volume does not increase. Women do not menstruate, the cause of this condition is ovarian tumor, testicular tumor, adrenal gland diseases such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia, some special genetic diseases, wrong medication. Parents often feel anxious and confused when they see their children go through puberty early.

Parents need to pay close attention to the development of their children. Instead of worrying or compromising when noticing unusual signs, parents should take their baby to see a pediatric endocrinologist to be diagnosed and treated as early as possible.
At Vinmec Times City International Hospital, the baby will be examined with a leading expert in Pediatric Endocrinology, will have sex hormone blood tests, bone age assessment tests, and MRI scans. brain or some more specialized tests, to determine the right cause of precocious puberty and promptly treat.
Currently, the method of injecting GnRH agonist hormone to suppress puberty has been proven to be safe, does not cause infertility, has the effect of slowing/stopping mammary gland development, reducing pubic hair growth, and stopping menstruation. , the penis will decrease in size so that the child develops according to the right age.
GnRH hormone comes in two forms, the once every 4 weeks or the 12 weeks injections. GnRH hormone will help slow/stop early pubertal growth and reach late adulthood height according to parents' genetics. Psychologically, children will be less worried about their body's development, focus on studying and reduce the risk of sexual abuse.
In the long term, GnRH reduces the rate of bone formation, improving the child's height later on. The results of height improvement depend greatly on the time and age of the child coming for treatment. The "golden time" for treatment of precocious puberty is before the age of 6. The therapeutic effect of the hormone GnRH is positive. However, parents should not be so gullible that they listen to word of mouth and arbitrarily give their children hormone injections. Injecting by any means is reckless.
In addition, parents need to establish a balanced diet, encourage children to exercise to avoid obesity and overweight to avoid early puberty.
>> See also: LH testing and puberty in children - Article written by MSc Tran Quynh Trang - Doctor of Biochemistry, Laboratory Department - Vinmec Times City International Hospital