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Growth Hormone Therapy in question for my 10yr old daughter

Mary - posted on 08/18/2012 ( 1 mom has responded )

Hello,
My beautiful daughter is 10 years old and was diagnosed as Growth Hormone Deficient the other day after she had a Growth Hormone Stimulation test. Her level was 7.1. The Endocrin said this was "borderline." Apparently anything under 10 is deficient by Insurance company's standards. Her bone age shows a predicted height of 4'11.5" give or take 2" but because she was SGA(Small for Gestational Age-29 week preemie-14 inches long), the doctor predicts she'll be even shorter. Maybe 4'9". But one never knows. I'm scared of long term, unknown effects of doing GHT but I'm conflicted about getting her on therapy. I'd love to see her blossom into a full grown adult. Does anyone have any advice? Are there negative long term effects documented?

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Stacey - posted on 01/08/2013

Hi I'm new to this site. My 10 yo daughter also has been diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency (GHD). The long or short term effects vary depending on the drug. My daughter has been put on tev-tropin. It's fairly new (on the market since 2005) and there really isn't any info for long term effects on it. I have the same hesitations as you have on the long term. I joined this site hoping to find other moms/families going through this. I'm a single mother and my children's father is a piece of poo that hasn't seen them in almost 6 years so I'm dealing with this completely by myself. I got laid off so my daughter is on Medicaid and tev-tropin is the only one they will pay for. Let me know how things are. I realize a lot could have happened since you originally posted :)