When it comes to “hormones”, not to mention parents who don’t know anything about medicine, even some of our medical staff are also scared of “hormones”, we often say “hormones” refers to glucocorticosteroids including We often say “hormone” refers to glucocorticoids, including prednisone, dexamethasone, hydrocortisone and so on. In addition, there are parents who mistakenly believe that growth hormone is a sex hormone, but in fact the latter is just another member of this big family. So what is the difference between them? In fact, although they are all surnamed “hormone”, is a family, the difference can be very big. They not only “live in the place” is not the same, “work unit” is also different. Growth hormone is a protein hormone secreted by the anterior pituitary gland of the human body, consisting of 191 amino acids. It is the most important growth-promoting hormone in the body. The growth of children’s height is mainly realized by the cell division and proliferation of the cartilage plate between the diaphysis and epiphysis of the long bones, and growth hormone has a significant effect on the division and proliferation of such cartilage cells. When entering puberty, growth hormone is synergized by sex hormones, which further cause rapid growth in height. Growth hormone also has a significant role in promoting protein synthesis, so the growth of various organs and tissues in the body also has a significant role in promoting the growth of children suffering from congenital or acquired diseases, resulting in a lack of growth hormone or secretion of insufficient, which can result in short stature, or even dwarfism, and the whole body of a variety of organs and tissues of the growth of the stagnant. Synthetic recombinant growth hormone has exactly the same chemical structure as the growth hormone produced by the human pituitary gland. Appropriate use of recombinant growth hormone as a replacement therapy can significantly promote the height growth of the affected children and improve the growth and development of various organs and tissues of the whole body. Growth hormone is currently the only effective drug for the treatment of pituitary dwarfism and has been in clinical use for nearly 50 years. Initially, its source was taken from the pituitary gland of animals, but it was soon proved to be inactive in the human body. In the 1950s, growth hormone was successfully extracted for the first time from the pituitary gland of human beings and was gradually applied in clinical practice, and its development has roughly gone through five generations. With the change of time, the development and application of growth hormone is becoming more and more mature, the first genetically recombinant human growth hormone was introduced in 1979, and began to be used in clinical practice in the early 80’s, which has brought the gospel to thousands of children with short stature, and changed his (her) fate. Glucocorticoid is a steroid hormone secreted by the adrenal cortex. Under normal physiological conditions, it has an important role in regulating the metabolism of nutrients in the body and the function of various organs, and is one of the hormones necessary for maintaining life. The glucocorticoid hormone secreted by the human body itself is cortisol, and the synthetic one is called hydrocortisone, which has strong anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic and immunosuppressive effects, but the long-term application of large doses will cause many side effects, such as peptic ulcers, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, immune dysfunction, and centripetal obesity, etc. The sex hormone is produced by the gonads and the kidneys. Sex hormones are steroid hormones secreted by the gonads and the adrenal cortex. The testes mainly secrete testosterone, the ovaries mainly secrete estradiol and progesterone, and the adrenal cortex mainly secretes dehydroisoandrosterone. During the fetal period, the level of sex hormones in the body is high, which plays a decisive role in the sexual differentiation and development of the fetal reproductive organs. At puberty, the level of sex hormones rises significantly again, which is not only crucial for the development and maturation of the reproductive organs and sexual characteristics, but also synergizes with growth hormone to cause a sudden increase in body growth. However, throughout childhood, the reproductive organs remain in an infantile state, and the level of sex hormones in the body remains at a very low level. At this time, if foods or drugs containing sex hormones are ingested in large doses or for a long period of time, they may cause early development of the reproductive organs and sexual characteristics. From the above, it is clear that growth hormone, whether from the source, chemical structure, or from the physiological and pharmacological effects, are completely different from the commonly used glucocorticoids and sex hormones, so the proper use of growth hormone to treat short stature in children will not produce glucocorticoid or sex hormone-like effects and side effects. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of growth hormone in the treatment of growth hormone deficiency, congenital ovarian hypoplasia, less-than-fetal-age children (i.e., intrauterine growth retardation), and idiopathic short stature in 1985, 1996, 2001, and 2003, respectively, with encouraging results, and the main application of genetically recombined growth hormone in 1996. At present, the main application of genetically recombinant human growth hormone is the growth hormone imported from abroad in 1996, the price of which is so high that the average family cannot afford it, and at the end of the 1990s, the domestic genetically recombinant human growth hormone was introduced, and its efficacy and safety have been proved by clinical practice, and the price of it is cheaper than that of imported products. But this is not to say that growth hormone is a panacea for dwarfism, if the child has passed the puberty development period, epiphysis has been completely closed, at this time the growth potential has been very limited, and then good drugs are also very difficult to play the effect of height increase. Therefore, the earlier the short stature treatment, the better the effect. Research has shown that the younger the child, the more active the proliferation and differentiation of the cartilage layer of the epiphysis, the greater the child’s growth potential and space, the more sensitive the response to treatment, and the better the growth effect.