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S/O Poll: Why did you give your child growth hormone?
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Why did/does your child take growth hormone?
Hormone Deficiency  
 72%  [ 13 ]
Other physical medical condition  
 0%  [ 0 ]
Cosmetic reasons  
 16%  [ 3 ]
Other:please specify  
 11%  [ 2 ]
Total Votes : 18



amother
OP


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 10:10 am
I was told by my childs endocrinologist that if my DC is not hormone deficient growth hormone will only help very minimally for maybe an inch or two.
Yet, it seems to be quiet popular to give children growth hormone to increase stature. This got me curious, are there so many frum kids who are hormone deficient...is there something else I should be concerned about?
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My4Jewels




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 10:24 am
My son is in growth hormone and I was told by a few pediatric endocrinologists that growth hormone only replaces what’s the child is missing. So if they are supposed to be 5’8 and are deficient in growth hormone so will end up 5’4 instead. By taking growth hormone they again will be 5’8. If someone isn’t deficient it won’t make them taller than they were supposed to be
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amother
Lotus


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 10:31 am
My4Jewels wrote:
My son is in growth hormone and I was told by a few pediatric endocrinologists that growth hormone only replaces what’s the child is missing. So if they are supposed to be 5’8 and are deficient in growth hormone so will end up 5’4 instead. By taking growth hormone they again will be 5’8. If someone isn’t deficient it won’t make them taller than they were supposed to be


Exactly. I was told the same thing.
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amother
Daylily


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 10:34 am
I don't think insurance will cover it if your child is not growth hormone deficient. I know we had to jump through hoops to get approved by insurance.

For someone who is projected to be, let's say, 5'0" - that's very short for a man and if you give the growth hormone injections he might be 5'2"... well, I can't blame the parents for trying, although I think it might be very, very expensive.
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amother
Daphne


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 10:39 am
Also early puberty can be a factor to use gh treatment really no such thing as cosmetic do you know how hard it is to get it insurance nce approved and how $$$$$$ it is
I had on on because growth hormone deficient
One on bec if early puberty we also had to give hormones to hold off
There are a lot of test appointments and blood work for all this
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amother
Hydrangea


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 10:39 am
I know a family with many kids. At this point they’re mostly all married and some are teenagers. They’re all extremely short and their mother told me that some kids it helped and some kids she didn’t see any results and they stayed under 5 feet.
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amother
Seablue


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 10:39 am
One child wasn’t growing even though he wasn’t growth hormone deficient. He is now 5’ 6”.
My other child wasn’t deficient in hormone but had a partial SHOX deficiency which also affects growth (it’s detected by genetic testing). For him we had no trouble getting approval, for the other one we had to fight.

Like an earlier poster said, growth hormones are not going to make a kid super tall, it will get them to what would’ve been their coerced height based on genetics.
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amother
Kiwi


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 11:34 am
I have 3 children who have/are taking growth hormone, 2 have GH deficiency and the other one does not but was projected to be very short (something like 5'2" for a boy). We are a short family in general, so even without GH deficiency, our children's expected adult heights (based on parental height) is 4'11"-5'3" for a girl and 5'3"-5'7" for a boy.

DD who took GH for 6 years has reached an adult height of just under 5'. I am so happy she took it! DD14 has been growing nicely since starting about 5 years ago, but he is still shorter than most of his peers (still under 5', but with several more years to grow iyH). DD8, who does not have GH deficiency, has been taking it for about a year and is growing more than he was before but is still quite small. We did not see the initial jump in growth when starting GH with him as we did with his GH-deficient siblings.
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amother
Brass


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 11:39 am
Insurance will approve without GH deficiency if the child is below the 3rd percentile I believe. Also, many GH pharmaceutical companies have patient assistance programs and then it's either free or very affordable, based on income.
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amother
Brass


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 11:42 am
amother [ Daphne ] wrote:
Also early puberty can be a factor to use gh treatment really no such thing as cosmetic do you know how hard it is to get it insurance nce approved and how $$$$$$ it is
I had on on because growth hormone deficient
One on bec if early puberty we also had to give hormones to hold off
There are a lot of test appointments and blood work for all this

Yes, appointments are usually every 3 or 4 months and involve x rays and blood work. You need a good insurance company because it's expensive.
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amother
Daylily


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 11:57 am
My4Jewels wrote:
My son is in growth hormone and I was told by a few pediatric endocrinologists that growth hormone only replaces what’s the child is missing. So if they are supposed to be 5’8 and are deficient in growth hormone so will end up 5’4 instead. By taking growth hormone they again will be 5’8. If someone isn’t deficient it won’t make them taller than they were supposed to be

I have heard that it can make them an inch or two taller. Not as dramatic as someone who is actually deficient in growth hormone.
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amother
Daphne


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 12:34 pm
amother [ Brass ] wrote:
Insurance will approve without GH deficiency if the child is below the 3rd percentile I believe. Also, many GH pharmaceutical companies have patient assistance programs and then it's either free or very affordable, based on income.

Not so easy To get coverage Idopasic short stature syndrome (ISS) which covers under 3% Even with the assistance programs and all that it’s still coming very costly and not easy I have been doing dealing with it for 7 year and 2 kids one with ghd one with iss
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amother
Bergamot


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 12:48 pm
My daughter just turned 15.
She has not gotten her period yet as she is petite and started developing late. She is barely 5’ tall.
All these threads have got me thinking if this is still an option for us.
Ftr I am 5’1.
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amother
Brass


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 12:52 pm
amother [ Daphne ] wrote:
Not so easy To get coverage Idopasic short stature syndrome (ISS) which covers under 3% Even with the assistance programs and all that it’s still coming very costly and not easy I have been doing dealing with it for 7 year and 2 kids one with ghd one with iss

Some PPO plans cover ISS , but depending on how much you are paying, it's worth to get a broker and look into other insurances because it might be worth it for you.
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amother
Maize


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 12:56 pm
amother [ Daphne ] wrote:
Not so easy To get coverage Idopasic short stature syndrome (ISS) which covers under 3% Even with the assistance programs and all that it’s still coming very costly and not easy I have been doing dealing with it for 7 year and 2 kids one with ghd one with iss


I have some relatives that are not hormone deficient but many are getting growth hormone. Not paying anything and the doctor keeps writing letters to the insurance. I think the doctor and the insurance company play a roll here.
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amother
Tuberose


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 2:42 pm
Does the bone age scan reveal anything about puberty? Meaning if the bone age shows two years ahead, does that mean he will go through puberty early?

IUGR also may affect approval. My son had IUGR but was born with a height just about passing the threshold of automatic approval. His growth hormone test then showed a deficiency though, but from what I understood from the doctor, had my son been born slightly smaller, he may have qualified sooner. (IUGR combined with poor growth)
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amother
Tuberose


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 2:46 pm
I honestly wish I would’ve gotten hormone therapy as a child. I’m not terribly short but I’d love to have been more average than my stature of 5’1”.

People often dismiss short stature as genetic, but it makes me wonder whether that is said in resignation or explanation. Meaning, maybe my parents and I also needed hormone therapy which we simply never got.
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amother
Brass


 

Post Fri, Oct 15 2021, 2:49 pm
amother [ Tuberose ] wrote:
Does the bone age scan reveal anything about puberty? Meaning if the bone age shows two years ahead, does that mean he will go through puberty early?

IUGR also may affect approval. My son had IUGR but was born with a height just about passing the threshold of automatic approval. His growth hormone test then showed a deficiency though, but from what I understood from the doctor, had my son been born slightly smaller, he may have qualified sooner. (IUGR combined with poor growth)

They monitor bone growth because when puberty comes the bone plates fuse and they have to stop GH therapy, but ask a doctor.
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amother
Pewter


 

Post Sat, Oct 16 2021, 11:30 pm
amother [ Lotus ] wrote:
Exactly. I was told the same thing.


Me too. But I others have posted differently and I've always wondered what was true. Not that it mattered because my son was deficient. Just curious
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amother
OP


 

Post Sun, Oct 17 2021, 1:14 am
Thanks to all those that replied. To clarify further, my question came from another thread on GH where a few mothers posted that even when their kid went to sleepaway camp, it wasn't awkward because there were others "lining up for their injections" I understand that it's time consuming...can be painful and costly endeavor (esp if not covered by insurance) which is why I was wondering are all those kids "lining up for injections" truly GH deficient or are we frum overachieving perfectionist mothers setting yet another superficial standard?

My DC is quite short (2nd/3rd percentile) and we keep getting questioned from well meaning relatives asking if we considered GH cuz "you know, all my nieces are doing it" or "my neighbor put all her boys on it". We are working with an excellent endocrinologist but those comments and the threads here got me thinking..... wondering
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