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How Treatment Can Help
Treatment can delay puberty
until the appropriate time
until the appropriate time
Puberty is normal, but timing is everything. Treatment of central precocious puberty (CPP) can be a way to hit the puberty "pause" button. It allows a child to delay entering puberty until the time is appropriate. It may also spare them the confusion of coping with changes before they are physically and emotionally prepared.
Treatment may help children
reach adult height potential.
reach adult height potential.
Central precocious puberty allows puberty to happen too early. The reason to treat CPP is to help prevent complications that can arise from CPP. One such complication is reduced adult height. When this happens, it can lead to a quick growth spurt that stops earlier than usual. In the short term, a child may appear taller than children their own age. In the long term, they may never reach their true adult height potential.
Central Precocious
Puberty (CPP) May Result in
reduced Adult Height
Children with CPP may be taller
than their classmates now, but...
than their classmates now, but...
If CPP is not treated as recommended, your child may have one or more early growth spurts. But the end result is that your child could end up shorter as an adult than he or she might otherwise have been. The reason is that with CPP, growth hormones prematurely stimulate bone growth and shorten the normal amount of time for a child's height to increase. Once bones have reached a certain limit and growth plates have fused, no further growth is possible.
CPP treatment may help
a child reach their adult
height potential
a child reach their adult
height potential
Treatment has been shown to effectively "halt" the progress of early puberty development that occurs when a child has CPP. Because of the suppressive effect of medicines used to treat CPP, hormones can return to pre-puberty levels, and slow the fusion of bone plates. This can help children with CPP reach their adult height potential.
Social and Emotional Concerns
of Children With Central
Precocious Puberty (CPP)
A child may not be
prepared for changes
prepared for changes
When pubertal changes happen in a young child's body, they may have an impact on your child's emotions. Being different may make a child feel uncomfortable about such changes, as most children want to be like their friends and classmates. This may result in low self-esteem and embarrassment.
Young children with CPP may be emotionally unprepared if puberty is happening too early. Puberty too early can lead to disturbances in behavior, which may include moodiness associated with "teen attitude," heightened anxiety, and symptoms of depression.
