if a 6yr old male child had an enlarged penis and axillary hair,increased bone density and his testes?

Question

A 6-yr old male presents with the following symptoms: Enlarged penis, pubic and axillary hair, increased bone density and enlarged testes (a condition known as precocious puberty). Blood samples show high GnRH, but inhibin levels appear low.

what would be the cause of the problem? what causes all these things to happen to a person,and will they have any other symptons?
Would injections of HCG be a possible treatment course to take?

Answer 1

Forgive me for being a bit repetitious, but I like to state what I have to see where I'm going:

GnRH (which shouldn't be present in a six-year-old!) is produced mostly in the hypothalamus and would normally stimulate the production of follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone which in turn start spermatogenesis. That seems to relate to most of your symptoms right there.

Normally, the testicles of an adult would produce inhibin in turn to keep the GnRH levels in check. But this isn't happening. Of course, they don't NORMALLY do that until after puberty either, so maybe that's not too surprising.

hCG in men would stimulate the production of testosterone, which could concievably give the sertoli cells enough of a kick in the pants to start making inhibin. But it seems to me that while that might be a great solution for a teenager, it's not so great for a six-year-old. Likewise, hCG is typically used in cases of hypogonadism, which seems to be precisely the opposite of what we have here.

Until you track down the cause of the abnormally high GnRH (I hope it's not a brain tumor!), the most reasonable course to me would seem to be using a strong GnRH agonist. That will cause a large flare of FSH and LH initially, but is a much better long-term solution than an antagonist which will require daily injections. Further, agonists of this kind are typically used for treatment of precocious puberty, so it seems like a wise thing to start with.

I should caution, though... I'm no medical doctor. I just play one on TV, so to speak.

Answer 2

My niece was developing symptoms of precocious puberty. They started eating organic foods at home, as these don't have the added hormones that many standard grocery-store shelf items have. The symptoms did not go away, but have stabilized, so it seems that perhaps this solution worked.

Answer 3

Girl...wake up... that's not a boy, that's a dwarf!!!