The Problems From Using Growth Hormone Therapy To Make Growing Children Taller

In a recent post that the heightism blogger Geoffrey Arnold wrote in the r/short subreddit, he made a point on the limitations of growth hormone therapy to treat idiopathic short stature. On a certain level, he is right. However, there is more to the science than just reading the Abstracts to PubMed articles, which I have found many people already do ie. Bodybuilders, and amateur researchers. He is well read, but not at a level of a person who has gone deeper into the details.

I refer to the post…

On his first claim, 99% of the time, he is correct, however there have been certain cases of individuals who did see a slight bit of increase in their adult height after using HGH, but it was almost always just 1 inch or so. I refer to someone actually well known in the online community, one of the founders/spokesperson of the website GoodLookingLoser.com The big muscled guy wrote in one thread that he did grow 1 full inch after he started to take growth hormones for his workouts to increase his muscle size. Many people responded saying that he couldn’t have since he was too old and his growth plates were fused, but he has stuck by his claims.

On his 2nd claim, he is only half right.

The thing is that children who are short statured which is caused by growth hormone deficiency will have a much more pronounced and dramatic boost in growth and final adult height from using growth hormones, but that does NOT mean that developing children with fully open epiphyseal growth plates who are short statured which is NOT caused by GH deficiency won’t see any height increasing results. That is where he is wrong.

The clearest example is to ask the question, for the hundreds (maybe even thousands) of people throughout history who has become giants from pituitary gland GH over-stimulation, did they also suffer from GH deficiency? From a anatomical point of view, radiologists looking at X-Rays and/or MRIs have shown that the pituitary gland have become enlarged, or has a unique tumor in the brain area. When it was found that this chemical called growth hormone was released mainly from the pituitary gland,  the link between cases of gigantism and the extra-stimulation and release of GH was clear.

The real question becomes, for a person to actually develop gigantism, is whether they have to suffer two different conditions simultaneously, 1) having growth hormone deficiency to make them more GH susceptible and 2) then have an overactive pituitary gland to develop into tall stature, or is it just an overactive pituitary gland?

I would guess the latter. Increased levels of GH that is coursing through the developing child’s system will make them bigger.

Now, the claims made are backed by studies, like the 2007 article “Growth Hormone Injections Add Height, But Kids Stay Short” In that article, it makes it seems like certain children are just destined to be short, and not even GH therapy would help them. The expensive, weekly injections would only give around 3 inches of extra height. The amount of money needed is stated to be around “Each half-inch in final height gained via human growth hormone therapy costs anywhere from $18,000 to $36,600“

Jackie Bryant, did make the point that even with with GH therapy, kids with idiopathic short stature would still be relatively short. However, we like to point out the word “relatively“. If Geoffrey took the time to look at the real data for the studies, he would see that technically the GH injections did make developing children taller, but maybe not as much as to change the fact that those children will not be the next Shaq.

We quote the article…

“Despite these findings, children treated with growth hormone remained short near the lower range of normal when compared to their peers.

“Genetic factors affect growth and final height, and parents should be realistic in their expectations about the potential effects of growth hormone,” Bryant said“

If a kid is only 4 feet tall and started to use GH on a weekly basis starting at 13, they are not going to be 6 feet tall by the time they are 18.

(Reference: Bryant J, Baxter L, Cave CB, Milne R. Recombinant growth hormone for idiopathic short stature in children and adolescents. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD004440. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004440.pub2)

The other big problem with GH which we agree with is that to much GH can actually accelerate the bone age and bone maturity, so that the children will have fused growth plates earlier. Growth Plate Senescence does accelerate due to GH therapy usage.

However, that is the main thing. Arnold said that GH Therapy would not even work on children, unless they have GH deficiency. That is not exactly true. Even if a child is not GH deficient, they will get some level of height increase from the years of GH therapy when they are still growing, even though it may be just an extra 1 inch of height.

When it comes to the science of auxology, Geoffrey Arnold is not that well informed on the exact specifics. Please, for the future talk about the sociological, psychological, and anthropological aspects of height, short stature, and heightism, but stay away from the hard sciences, unless one has the right type of educational (or research) background to talk about such issues.

You would make mistakes informing the readers on the wrong things and pushing them in the wrong directions. If we made a mistake, we would be sure to let it be known and correct ourselves and change our opinions and positions on whatever matters we are discussing.