Central precocious puberty

Puberty is a time of great physical and emotional change, even when it occurs within an age range that is expected. When puberty occurs at a younger age than expected, it can be a stressful and emotional experience for the parents as well as the child.

Precocious puberty is a general term meaning early sexual development in children, such as breast development in girls, genital enlargement in boys and the appearance of pubic hair. In the United Kingdom this is defined as below the age of 8 years in girls and 9 years in boys. Precocious puberty is when a child starts to develop his / her sexual organs before 8 years of age. The term central precocious puberty refers to the central control of the hormones responsible for a child’s pubertal development; this occurs at the pituitary gland. Going through puberty early can be difficult for a child emotionally and socially.

In addition to the early physical signs of puberty, a child may be taller than the peers in their class and more solid in their build. The increase in height is due to a premature pubertal growth spurt. Although the child may be initially tall now, if they are very young and the problem is not addressed, they may end up shorter than expected. This is because they will end up stopping their growth before their peers.

As well as growth, there may be other reasons to treat early puberty. Puberty that commences too early can be associated with behavioural difficulties in both boys and girls. Concentration in school and social integration is usually affected by precocious puberty and needs careful assessment and management.

For most children there is no underlying medical condition that triggers early puberty, although our patients will be checked for tumours in the brain or a problem in the ovaries, testes or thyroid gland. For a majority of our patients, they will be given a treatment that lowers the levels of sex hormones to stops this early sexual development.