TREATMENT OF EXCESSIVE GROWTH IN THE ADOLESCENT FEMALE

Abstract

Growth in the adolescent rarely reaches the stage of gigantism in the absence of an expanding eosinophilic adenoma of the anterior pituitary. Nevertheless excessive growth, though short of gigantism, may become an issue in the adolescent female for it is likely to raise social and economic problems capable of eliciting serious emotional disturbances. X-ray treatment or surgery, as applicable in the case of pituitary adenoma, obviously cannot be considered in the absence of a demonstrable pituitary lesion. Hence therapeutic measures are usually omitted in spite of the patient's unhappiness about her abnormal height.