Oh, my heart got bigger... Will I get shorter if I come to adolescence early?
Sep 08, 2025
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Because I measure my height at school every year, I compare it to my peers, and what if my child is shorter than average...…" I'm worried that. In particular, the number of children visiting hospitals for precocious puberty is increasing rapidly as more parents are concerned that puberty may start too soon and become shorter in the final adult height.
According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of precocious puberty patients was 108,575 in 2019, but 186,726 in 2023, a 72% surge over the past five years. That's how many children visited the hospital for precocious puberty.
Yoon Ji-hee, director of the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescents at Bundang Jesaeng Hospital (Hospital Director Na Hwa-yeop), said "Adolescence is a developmental process that must be watched with interest, not a medicine " and "If physical changes are accelerated pathologically, it can lead to mental and psychological difficulties at a time when peer relationships are important."
If the breast or plot develops before the age of 8 in girls and the growth rate increases rapidly than before, or testicular size increases (more than 4 ml or more than 2.5 cm in diameter) before the age of 9 in boys, precocious puberty should be suspected.
Manager Yoon Ji-hee explained, "Adolescence is the second period of rapid growth after the period of rapid growth in infancy. Both men and women grow up to 7-12cm per year during puberty, but if puberty begins too early or progresses quickly, the final adult height can become smaller."
The commonly called precocious puberty is caused by early activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gendon axis as a central precocious puberty. As the secretion of sex hormone increases, secondary sexual characteristics are expressed, clear body changes between men and women occur, and fertilization ability is gradually acquired. In addition, the secretion of growth hormone increases, and the growth rate increases rapidly. However, if puberty begins quickly, there may be a risk of early menarche in girls, and the growth plate closes quickly due to accelerated bone maturity, which can lead to a final adult height loss.
Studies have shown that if a girl is diagnosed early before the age of 8 with central precocious puberty and begins treatment, the final adult height may be 5.1cm taller on average. However, if the bone age has already progressed a lot before the onset of rapidly progressing central precocious puberty or treatment, the height gain from precocious puberty treatment is significantly reduced. On the contrary, premature puberty close to normal puberty (girls start at 8-9 years old, boys start puberty at 9-10.5 years old)Even if it is a central precocious puberty, the final height loss may not be significant without treatment if the progression is slow.
Manager Yoon Ji-hee said "Just because adolescence started earlier than peers does not mean that treatment must be done unconditionally, so it is necessary to carefully decide treatment considering various factors. After a certain age, no significant increase in final adult height was observed even if central precocious puberty treatment was continued, and in girls, treatment after bone age 13 showed a negative association with final adult height. "
In other words, puberty is like a spectrum, so it is very important for treatment decisions to know what starting timing and speed our child's puberty shows. If early menarche and a fast-paced central precocious puberty can cause severe damage to final adult height, early initiation of treatment before bone age is significantly accelerated can help prevent damage to final adult height.
In order to prevent and manage such central precocious puberty, it is recommended to check your height and weight regularly, observe changes in growth rate, minimize exposure to environmental hormones, get enough sleep, manage proper stress, and supplement vitamin D. In addition, obesity is a well-known risk factor, so it is necessary to maintain a standard weight that fits your height through proper diet and exercise, and if you were an unwarranted minor, a newborn weighing less than 10% compared to the gestational period at birth, or if your parents had an early puberty, your risk of precocious puberty is higher.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
