Precocious puberty - anybody with experience please?

[pocketmonster]

Hi all

My DD 4.8 was diagnosed with Pre Thelarche when she was about 18 months old. She had one breast bud, they did tests and the tests revealed she was producing a particular hormone that wasn't usual at her age, that one of her ovaries was over developed for her age and her bone age was slightly advanced too. She was under the consultant for a short time and the breast bud eventually went. The consultant told me that she didn't have precocious puberty but that she could be at risk of developing this later.

I have recently noticed that she is getting more hair around her pubic area and also seems to have a breast bud again. I am making a GP appointment.

I've googled (I know not a good idea) and what I have read has made me feel so very worried for her.

Please, does anybody have experience of PP and if so do you mind sharing your experience? Questions I want to ask are things like: how much of an impact does this have on a child? Do the hormones they give them, properly delay puberty or do they still have an early puberty? Do the hormones have any side effects - short term or long term? How did you explain this to your DD?

Thanks in advance.

Ime in the vast majority of cases puberty can be completely halted with the drugs used though sometimes there can be a balance between the preferred treatment for the child/family and the success of the treatment in halting pubertal development.

If your daughter does have prec.puberty (and it does sounds as though she does) then you should ultimately be under the care of a paediatric endocrine team who should have nurse specialists who will help you to give age appropriate explanations to your dd.

Thanks LaDiDaDi. I still have the number for the consultant at The Child Growth Foundation so might ring them direct rather than going through the GP.

When you talk about a balance between the preferred treatment and success - what do you mean? I'm most worried about the side effects of the treatments - can it cause other illnesses? How invasive is it?

Sorry for all the questions I am just so worried.

Treatment is injections on a regular basis, v. occasionally the frequency of the injections has to be increased as well as the dose in order to prevent "breakthrough" pubertal changes iyswim and some children/families would rather have a little bit of breakthrough than more intensive treatment, particularly in older girls.

Side effects are v.v.v. rare other than discomfort at the time of injection.

Thanks again LaDiDaDi - that really helps, having some firm information makes me feel less out of control with it.