In my first article “What is Pituitary Dwarfism (Growth Hormone Deficiency, Panhypopituitarism?)” I was telling you about my daughter who has 100% growth hormone deficiency, also her body doesn’t produce any estrogen or progesterone, her thyroid doesn’t function properly and she struggles with anxiety and OCD. In that article we looked at the definition and causes. In this article I’d like to look at testing and treatment.

Tests given may include the following:

• A Hand x-ray can determine bone age. My daughter’s endocrinologist would check her bone age about every 6 months this way. Another indicator of bone age would be tooth development. My daughter lost her last baby tooth when she was fourteen years old.

• “Measurement of growth hormone and associated binding protein levels (IGF-I and IGFBP-3) reveals if the growth problem is caused by dysfunction of the pituitary gland.

• Tests to measure other hormone levels (lack of growth hormone may not be an isolated problem).

• X-ray of head may show problems with the skull, such as small, enlarged, or empty sella or a space-occupying lesion.

• MRI of the head can show the hypothalamus and pituitary glands. “

Be prepared to spend all day at the hospital for some of these tests. We spent six to eight hours at the hospital when checking to see if my daughter’s body was producing growth hormone and when checking to see if her body was producing estrogen. Nurses came in every hour or so to give injections or draw blood, it was quite painful and stressful for her.

Treatment

“Synthetic growth hormone can be used for children with growth hormone deficiency. This treatment requires the assistance of a pediatric endocrinologist. Treatment with synthetic (recombinant) human growth hormone is generally considered to be safe, with rare side effects. Treatment with human growth hormone theoretically corrects the deficiency, but is most successful when the child is young. It must be given by injection. “

My daughter really struggled with taking her shots for the first few years. I wrote another article with some tips that we learned through trial and error over the years to make shot time a less stressful more positive experience.

• “If the deficiency is an isolated growth hormone deficiency, synthetic growth hormone is given alone. If the deficiency is not isolated, other hormone replacement preparations will be required as well. If many of these hormones are lacking, there are often neurological signs, eye signs, vision impairment, Low Blood Sugar, and short stature. The Low Blood Sugar occurs when the action of insulin is unopposed; or minimally opposed because of deficiency of pituitary hormones.”