Precocious puberty - what would you do?

[ThrowawayALotta]

DD9 has been diagnosed with precocious puberty and we've been told to go away and consider Decapeptyl injections to delay her period for a while.

The trouble is her consultant is pretty on the fence and keeps saying its up to us. I prefer to be guided by experts so I'm finding it incredibly difficult and frustrating that I have to make this judgement without the doctor being any help at all!

Her current status is: minor pubic hair, breast buds, no periods. First signs of hair growth age 7 but due to covid we werent seen until she was 8, she's just turned 9.

The doc measured her and said her growth is borderline, they allow for 5-8cm in the normal range (presumably per year) and she has grown 8.5cm so only just over normal.

We have been told she might want the injections to gain more height, her projected final height is 160-170cm so not overly short in my opinion. The doc also said to consider the psychosocial aspects of starting periods early without really giving me much insight into what those might be.

The side effects of the drug are particularly worrying, with depression being considered common (1 in 10). She already has a depressive tendency, with lockdown causing a severe bout for many months and she is still anxious to this day.

On the other hand it doesn't sound easy to be the only girl with boobs, the only one to deal with periods and acne etc. I worry about bullying and sexual interest from older boys etc.

If you've been in this position, what did you do? Do you regret your choice in the end?

Another who is surprised it is offered at 9, I thought from 8 they considered it within the normal parameters. I’d do nothing given that 9 although early is still considered normal

@fallfallfall

A quick search reveals some negative social findings associated with early menarche. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3743290/ I’m from Canada with an average age of menarche being a tiny bit later than the UK with the average 12.9 years vs 12.7. Family history for me is late starters both my mother, myself and dd 16+. I’d advocate for a much later start than 9.

None of that article seemed relevant to the UK tbh. My mum (78) started her period age 11, as did i and as did my dd. My sister was a little later and her dd was almost 16 before she started.

I was 9 when my periods started, definitely had public hair for a while before then (I think 7/8) I don't remember anyone ever being concerned I thought this was just the lower side of normal for puberty to begin in girls so I'm surprised the doctor suggested any intervention. Sadly I never developed much in the way of breasts even as an adult but I was the only one in my class dealing with periods (for a short while) and it wasn't a big deal - speak to the school to make sure the girls toilets have bins in though! I did have to deal with acne from quite early but your daughter might not, plenty of teenagers don't have to deal with it at all.