Hypothyroidism can cause slow growth because the thyroid gland isn't making enough thyroid hormone, which is needed to support normal growth. A blood test can show if someone has low thyroid hormone levels. For example, Turner syndrome is a genetic condition that happens in girls. It is caused by a missing or abnormal X chromosome. Another condition that can lead to significantly short stature is dwarfism. In many types of dwarfism, the arms and legs are short and look out of proportion to the rest of the body.
Growth hormone deficiency GH deficiency is a growth disorder related to the hormones that control growth. This condition involves the pituitary gland, the small gland at the base of the brain that makes growth hormone along with other hormones. If the pituitary gland doesn't make enough hormones, normal growth slows down or stops. Kids and teens with GH deficiency grow less than 2 inches 5 centimeters a year.
A person can be born with it, or it can happen later due to a head injury, brain infection, or brain surgery. Tumors near the pituitary gland, like craniopharyngioma pronounced: kray-nee-o-far-un-jee-OH-muh , can also damage the hypothalamus and pituitary gland and slow growth. Your doctor has followed your growth since you were a baby. If you stop growing as expected, the doctor will do an exam and may order special blood tests and X-rays of the bones of your wrist.
Your doctor will also look at growth patterns in your family. Adults - Some adults with growth hormone deficiency have growth hormone treatment. This is because, in adults, growth hormone is important in maintaining muscle bulk, a healthy skeleton and normal energy levels.
Treatment is to help these problems and not to increase height. Once growth has stopped and the growth plates are fused, growth hormone treatment will not change adult height.
There are many adults who would like to be taller and some who would like to be shorter. There are also many parents who are concerned that their children are too short or too tall. In most cases, the situation cannot be changed and should not be considered unnatural. Height cannot be altered once someone has stopped growing.
Treatment can only change the height of children in very limited circumstances, and, almost always where treatment is for an underlying medical condition. About Contact Events News.
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I Accept Show Purposes. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. When to Expect Growth Spurts. Factors That Can Impact Growth. Are They Done Growing? By age 16, the average height of girls is about five and a half feet. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Sign Up. What are your concerns? Verywell Family uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Related Articles. When Do Boys Stop Growing? From an evolutionary viewpoint, once our genes have orchestrated the growth and development of the body to the point that it can reproduce, the purpose for growth is complete. When we think of a growing child, we often picture one who is becoming taller, whose arms, legs and spine are growing longer and whose hands and feet are growing bigger. This is referred to as linear growth.
Knowing that our genetic makeup is ultimately responsible for stature, it is interesting to look at the mechanisms that stimulate and inhibit this type of growth. The complex interplay of genes, nutrients and hormones cause bone cells to proliferate at the growth plate of long bones. This interplay is also responsible for the cessation of linear growth and the correlating inability of these cells to further multiply and lengthen bone.
The key hormones in this process are: growth hormone, thyroxin, androgens and estrogen. They are secreted by the pituitary, thyroid and reproductive glands respectively.
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