Causes and Types of Precocious Puberty in North-West Iran

OBJECTIVE: Precocious puberty is of concern because of the underlying disorders, the short adult stature, and the psychosocial difficulties. This study was carried out in order to evaluate the characteristics of children referred to pediatric endocrinology clinic with diagnosis of precocious puberty. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study between February 2007 and September 2009, all of the children referred to pediatric endocrinology clinic in North-West Iran with diagnosis of precocious puberty were recruited. FINDINGS: Data of 106 girls (82.2%) and 23 boys (17.8%) were analyzed. Mean age of the patients at the time of referral was 6.6±2.8 years (ranging 0.3-14 yr), which was 7±3.9 (ranging 0.3-14 yr) for boys and 6.6±2.5 (ranging 0.8-12 yr) for girls (P=0.6). Out of 129 subjects, 56(43.4%) had precocious puberty, 71.4% (35 cases) of them were due to central precocious puberty and 28.6% (16 cases) were pseudo-precocious puberty. 73 out of 129 subjects (56.6%) were due to normal variants of puberty, normal puberty, and no puberty. 87.5% of subjects with central precocious puberty were idiopathic. CONCLUSION: Most of children referred with diagnosis of precocious puberty have benign normal variants. Most of cases with precocious puberty are affected with central precocious puberty, especially with idiopathic form of it.