​Precocious Puberty

Precocious puberty is a disorder in which your child starts entering puberty earlier than expected, which means they start developing into young men and women both physically and emotionally. In girls, puberty generally starts between eight to thirteen years of age, while boys reach puberty between nine and fourteen years of age. If your child reaches puberty before these age spans, doctors consider this as early puberty or precocious puberty. All signs of puberty – bone and muscle development, changes in body shape, physical developments, development of the body’s ability to reproduce – are noticed early in children with precocious puberty.

There are two kinds of precocious puberty:

• Central precocious puberty: Precocious puberty caused when the pituitary gland – a small pea-sized gland at the base of the brain that produces hormones for growth and development – produces a hormone to stimulate ovaries and testicles earlier than expected. This is the more common type of precocious puberty

• Peripheral precocious puberty: A rarer form of precocious puberty, in this disorder the brain and pituitary gland are not involved and a problem with the ovaries and testicles or the thyroid gland may cause early onset of puberty

Precocious puberty is not caused by any specific factor. Rarely, it may be linked to an infection, hormone disorder, tumours or brain injury. Girls are more at risk of precocious puberty, and so are children who are obese, who have been exposed to sex hormone through ointments or creams, or who have had radiation treatment for tumours, leukaemia or other conditions.

Besides the social and psychological pressure of being different from peers, children with precocious puberty may also suffer from complications such as insufficient growth in height as growth stops too early. Starting a treatment plan early is a good idea, and that’s why you must consult your child’s paediatrician working with the Children’s Hospital Service Line of The Aga Khan University Hospital when you identify any signs of precocious puberty in your child.