Overview of precocious puberty Disorders Precocious puberty is defined as the age at which any of the sex characteristics appear 2 standard deviations earlier than the average age of the normal population. It is now generally accepted that precocious puberty can be diagnosed as the development of secondary sexual characteristics or the onset of menstruation before the age of 8 for girls and the onset of sexual development before the age of 10 for boys. Since sexual development is related to a variety of factors and human growth and development is a continuous process, there is no very precise boundary. Some scholars believe that precocious puberty is only when a girl’s breasts develop significantly before the age of 7 or when menstruation begins before the age of 9, and when a boy begins to develop sexually before the age of 9, which requires a comprehensive examination. Precocious puberty is accompanied by accelerated body development and growth resulting in accelerated body height and muscle development, early epiphyseal closure and earlier growth cessation, leading to eventual short stature in adulthood. The earlier the sexual maturity, the faster the progress, the greater the impact on the child’s lifelong height. Parents should detect, diagnose and treat precocious puberty in time to help their children achieve their ideal height. Precocious puberty symptoms and signs Precocious puberty is more common in girls, and idiopathic precocious puberty occurs about 9 times more often in girls than in boys, while precocious puberty in boys is characterized by a higher rate of development of central nervous system abnormalities (such as tumors). Some of the symptoms may develop after a certain degree of sexual development and then pause for a period of time, while others may develop again after the symptoms have subsided. During the process of sexual development, both boys and girls experience rapid growth in height and weight and accelerated skeletal maturation, which can lead to early epiphyseal fusion and a shorter height in adulthood, despite being taller than children of the same age. After puberty, all children are normal except for their height, which is shorter than the general group. The sexual development process of peripheral precocious puberty is very different from the above-mentioned pattern. In boys with precocious puberty, the size of the testes should be noted. If the testes are >3ml, it suggests central precocious puberty, and if the testes are not enlarged, but masculinity develops progressively, it suggests peripheral precocious puberty, whose androgens may come from the adrenal glands. In cases of intracranial tumors, only precocious puberty is seen during the course of the disease, and later on, localized signs such as increased cranial pressure and visual field defects are seen and need to be monitored. Complications Accelerated bone maturation can eventually lead to a lifelong height below the target height. In the presence of central nervous system lesions such as intracranial tumors, headache, vomiting, vision changes, or other neurological signs and symptoms may be present; McCune-Albright syndrome may include pseudocysts, deformities, and fractures of bone, and may be associated with hyperthyroidism, adrenal, pituitary, and parathyroid functions, such as nodular goiter, hyperthyroidism, adrenal nodular hyperplasia, and hypersecretion of growth hormone The symptoms include gigantism or acromegaly; exogenous sex hormones can cause breast enlargement, vaginal bleeding, and ovarian cysts. Precocious puberty is one of the most important causes of precocious puberty in children because light can affect the normal work of the pineal gland, an endocrine organ in the brain. One of the functions of the pineal gland is to secrete a large amount of melatonin at night when the body goes to sleep, and this hormone is most abundantly secreted between eleven o’clock late at night and the early hours of the next morning, and stops being secreted after dawn when there is a light source. The pineal gland has a characteristic that as soon as the eye sees a light source, melatonin will be inhibited or stop secreting. If children are exposed to too much light, the secretion of pineal melatonin will be reduced, causing sleep disturbances that may lead to early secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone, resulting in precocious puberty. The incidence of precocious puberty in children is increasing year by year, but less than 10% of the real precocious puberty is caused by disease. 90% of children with precocious puberty are affected by external factors, of which excessive light stimulation should be taken seriously, especially when children sleep at night, if there are no special circumstances, it is best not to turn on the lights, and as much as possible to ensure adequate sleep. In addition, avoid the light stimulation of computer monitors for a long time to avoid precocious puberty.