A rare medical case was reported in Delhi earlier this week. A one-year old boy was diagnosed with a medical condition of early puberty called "precocious puberty.” The infant has developed sexual organs of a grown man, body hair, besides experiencing sexual urges.
READ: One-year-old boy attains puberty in Delhi
Here are some facts about this rare medical conduction:
What is precocious puberty?
Puberty is a stage of human growth when a person's sexual and physical characteristics undergo maturity. Precocious puberty refers to a medical condition in which one person seems to have attained these body changes earlier than what is considered normal.
1) Puberty is considered precocious in girls below 8 and below 9 for boys. In case of Delhi boy, he started developing physical organs when he was just 6-month-old.
2) Early puberty affects 1 in 5,000 children. However, this boy's condition is very rare as only one or two cases reported in 100,000 boys.
3) However, the parents continued to overlook the abnormal growth of their son for 18 months before they sought medical help for him.
4) The child had developed sexual organs of a grown man and experiencing sexual urges, said reports.
5) The child had developed facial and body hair and was grown 95 cm tall, which about 15 cm taller than normal babies.
6) Although, the kids with precocious puberty appear tall for their age, the high rate of bone growth can lead to stunted growth and can result in short stature.
7) The early onset of puberty also leads to emotional and social stress among the children. Explaining to children about their condition and proper medical treatment can support the child to cope with the situation.
8) The Delhi boy has testosterone levels of 500-600 nanogram per deciliter (ng/dl), a level that is found in a 25-year-old man. For his age the normal is just 20 ng/dl.
9) Now the boy's symptoms have been treated through hormone therapy.
10)According to reports, the boy's treatment costs Rs 11,000 every month. And an insurance company rejected the application to cover the toddler's medical expenses on the grounds that the condition was not life threatening.
