Information on delaying puberty

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Hi,

I'm the mother of a 9 year old girl with a diagnosis of Asperger's in the UK. Recently we've noticed some signs of puberty - hair in the armpits / pubic area, breast buds, whiffy armpits.

I have been to see my GP (Dr) to see if she could give my daughter something to delay puberty. She refused point blank, and just gave me some leaflets about the pill, implant and contraceptive injection that we can 'give her when her periods start'.

Now my point is I think it would be more appropriate to delay puberty until she is old enough to handle it herself - just a couple of years or so probably. She's barely continent, has lots of toilet fears / issues, and to be frank is moody and oppositional enough already without teen-tantrums age 10! She already feels 'different' to the other kids and though some of them are also developing they are less horrified by their bodies changing than she is. She HATES bathing or showering, which is another issue. My daughter is very advanced academically, but emotionally she's probably about 6 which doesn't come across because of her vocabulary and succinct way of expressing herself.Self organisation is not good and teen hormones don't help with this. Also, she is very small for her age (about the height of a 6 year old, although she is a 'stocky' build - not fat, but with heavy, muscley legs and solid hips) and I believe that after periods start you've only got another foot to grow.

Anyone have any experience with this or suggest anywhere to get more info? How can I find out what the NHS HAS prescribed before, my GP said there was 'nothing' available but a quick Google shows that's not true. And if the NHS won't prescribe can I get private treatment, does anyone know of any endocrinologists who are autism-friendly and understand the issues?

Thanks.

Nx

one of my nieces, who is now 21, showed signs of early puberty...as young as 8 years old, she started to get pubic hairs, underarm hairs and breast buds. She didnt get her period until she was 13. I am not sure hoe closely related those symptoms are to getting your period, but in her case it was MANY years later!

good luck!

Hi Aspimum

I'm in the UK too. Can you not seek an opinion from another doctor within your practice? I know at our surgery there are some docs I just refuse to get an appointment with due to their inability to even remotely understand autism . Or what about her psych, do you use CAMHS?

My daughter is 12 and puberty is here with a bang, just waiting on the periods starting and tbh I'm utterly dreading those, so can only imagine how you feel with a daughter of 9. I know a friend of mine with an NT daughter, who started her periods aged 5 , and she was put under the care of our local hospital to stop them etc. I guess it all depends what county you are in, blooking postcode lottery as usual

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Hi Aspimum

I understand your fears. But, as MMJMOM says, these signs may not indicate that your daughter is about to start her periods. The fact that she doesn't appear to have had a pre-pubescent growth spurt suggests that she's not in in danger of it starting soon. How big are her hands and feet? They are the first to grow quickly and then stop growing, as the rest of the body continues to grow, then the periods will start. She's not at all young to be going through the changes that you are observing, so I can see why your doc didn't want to prescribe anything. I know you have other concerns, due to your daughter's ASD, but I have to side with your doc and agree that delaying puberty is not the answer.

I took my daughter to see our GP, as I was afraid of an early puberty. She's just 6 and has developed breast buds. Also, she is very tall for her age (she appears more like an 8 or 9 year old with size 1 feet). I've been told not to worry, as the breast buds can appear at any age and they are not necessarily an indicator of puberty. However, I am watchful for other signs. This would be abnormally young for puberty and I expect my daughter will be referred for further tests, if any other signs appear.

Your daughter probably is starting to go through puberty, but at 9yrs this is normal (I started puberty at about 8, but my periods didn't start until I was 12). Sorry if this is isn't what you want to hear, but I would be hesitant to go against nature.

Best wishes

Mummy of Peanut,

My niece was also VERY TALL for her age, she was always heads taller then kids in her entire grade. This made us worry even more about early puberty, and that coupled with the signs of puberty at such a young age...but it was not till 13 that she got her preiod. I hope that your DD holds off for many years still

I understand what all of you are saying but, but....

I got my period when I was 11, a mere 3 months after developing underarm hair, right at the start of my second term at secondary school, and it was awful. It might have been natural, but I wasn't old enough. I am not ASD (well only a little bit) and I always felt like whenever I had my period everyone else knew about it and were looking at me. I had awful period pains that would really stop me in my tracks but I wouldn't want to tell anyone because it was so embarrassing.

I suffered in silence and got left out of lots of things (I remember clearly not joining in at drama club because it would mean getting off the chair and my tummy was too sore). I would also get diarrhea with my period pretty much until I had my children (DD does not wipe - usually she is constipated so her hard poos don't leave a trace...but her and diarrhea are not a good mix, she's not able to clean herself up) Apparently an early menarche does run in families.

Now, my DD is so much more likely than I was NOT to mention things when they don't feel right. She won't even know she's in pain, she'll just know something is wrong. It's likely to be expressed as anger or crying but she won't be able to say why. She doesn't know if she's about to vomit, or is hungry, or too hot or too cold or needs a wee or poo. She just knows something isn't right.

She's starting High School in the next 2 years - that's a HUGE transition without having to cope with hormonal changes etc. She definitely can't cope with the self-care required for a whole at school with a period as she doesn't go to the loo at school at all, she just pees in her pants a bit to let the pressure off all through the day and doesn't drink till she gets home.

I think she has had a growth spurt, she's always been on the 0.1st centile for her height previously so she's not AS far behind now.

My other option is to keep her weight down, i think this can delay puberty. I was just wondering if anyone had experience with the medical profession and the process - not the ethics.

Aspimum.

I started budding at age 9 when I started 3rd grade, I started body order at age ten and got ore body hair, I also started under arm hair when I was about 12, when I was nearly ten, I found hair down there but it was all light and not dark. I even started vaginal discharge at age 9 too. I started my period two weeks before my 12th birthday and I got a woman's body at age 12 after school started and my boobs got big too and that was very hard for me. I remember wishing then there was something I could take to slow down my puberty and early puberty was very hard for me. If my own child was emotionally immature, I think I would want to slow down his puberty too because that is what I would have liked done to me as a child. I suspected percosious (sp) puberty when I was in my teens and I would say I had a very mild case of it since others had it worse than I do because they started sooner.

Can you gt her on a full cycle birth control pill? If you can do that she won't have a period or will have very minimal spotting. Then you don't have to worry about the hygeine issue as much, just make sure she takes the pill every single day.

I think that delaying things with hormones is a bad idea. It can really mess up physiology. I'm not talking fertility. I'm talking vertical growth and other things. If you delay it when you stop delaying things may not go the way they should have and she can retain some of her little girl traits for ever... think of the old style female gymnasts who are 4'5" and have high pitched little girl voices.

Have you thought that possibly, puberty could actually help? I have AS, and I had a horrible time as a child, and didn't much care about trying to fit in back then but when those hormones hit I suddenly had the desire to be more like the other kids. I hated anything inconvenient, but I would do anything at all no matter how inconvenient to fit in. I'd get up two hours before school to hot roll my hair, iron my clothes, put on makeup really carefully, etc. Before that, you couldn't get me to brush my teeth. I even slept in Dippity-Doo and sponge rollers on more than one occasion. I stood statue still in the old "tanning booths" back before they had tanning beds, for up to 45 minutes at a time to get some color. I had acne so bad that I put a toothpaste mask on before bed and slept in it all night, which burns really bad BTW, but helps with zits. I did all this once the hormones kicked in. I also became very willing to take advice offered by other girls who eventually became my friends and helped me learn how to act.

Puberty may actually be what she needs to give her a push toward wanting to learn how to fit in better. It was for me, and I'm aware that everyone is different.

Also, have you discussed it with her about delaying it? As a parent, I feel that you have the right intentions, but it also comes across as something done to her, something that will deprive her of something that may help. Can you give it a try and see how she does? I'm sure if she is having a horrible time of it, then the dr would be able to do something to help, but without knowing how she actually reacts to it, I can't see doing that.

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Since no one else mentioned it ... what I'd probably do is try to make adjustments to her diet and eliminate anything that could be high in hormones like factory meat and cow's milk, or soy, maybe GMO's but they're near impossible to avoid, I'm not sure what else.... and if it was too late to slow down puberty - adjustments to diet could still help with body odors and reducing junk food can help alleviate the severity of PMS symptoms (at least it does for me).

[quote="Also, have you discussed it with her about delaying it? [/quote]

yeah - we had a long chat. What bothers her most of all is being short. Which she hates. I saw a GP on a talk show here a while back saying that there is a limit to growth following menarche and that he recommended that parents take short girls to their GP to have puberty delayed if they were showing signs and were very short (I'm quite small, only 5'3", but I have a 6'2" brother; DH is 5'11", DD has a younger NT sister by 3 years who wears the same size shoes as her - and her sister is also small for her age!) The ideas is they grow a bit BEFORE the final spurt, whereas if things continue the final spurt is IT. DD also dislikes her body changing and is a bit disgusted with body hair etc (she had me bleach her new 'tache and armpit hair a couple of weeks ago). She's not keen on the idea of periods, it makes her shiver/wince when I mention it. I asked her what she thought before we went to the GP and she wanted it stopped, I even rang the GP before I took her to enquire about it all as she hates being discussed (especially if I mention AS to people) which is why I am so cross that the GP #1 said they could help and to take her wtih me, and then GP#2 said they couldn't in front of her and also talked about contraceptive injections and implants which has frightened the life out of her!

As for eliminating hormone-rich foods - she pretty much lives on baked beans and boiled eggs, she appeases me occasionally by eating a raw carrot or a slice of cucumber or frozen peas (still frozen). She will eat most fruits but she's not keen on milky things, she eats cereal dry and won't have butter on bread or anything. We eat home-cooked food every night - we don't eat a lot of junk, although DD's diet could definitely be a lot better it's difficult when she eats such a small variety of food stuffs to make sure she gets a good balance...short of sticking a feeding tube down her throat!

It's interesting that you said it might help. I can see her getting quite picky about her appearance etc and wanting to fit in a bit more but I still worry that could make her vulnerable She's in mainstream education and there will really be no one to keep an eye on her in the day once she leaves Primary school - at least she's with 1 teacher all day there who is supposed to keep an eye on the her wet bum and stuff.