Short Girls Research Articles

An Association of Short Stature, Retarded Sexual Development and High Urinary Gonadotropin Titers in Women1

It has been a common and reasonable presumption that the association of unusual shortness of stature and retarded genital development bespeaks hypopituitarism, especially in the absence of cretinism, gross malnutrition or systemic disease. Even when roentgenological examination of the skull and studies of the visual fields are normal this presumption persists, fortified by a wealth of physiological data establishing the hypophysis as a controlling agent both for growth and for gonadal function and by our knowledge that demonstrable destructive pituitary disease produces similar physical consequences. Low titers of urinary gonadotropins would be expected in such people. However four short girls with deficient sexual development excreted 200 to 500 mouse units of gonadotropins per day, as judged by induced estrin production in the immature mouse, values corresponding to those of the castrate and usually taken to suggest primary ovarian insufficiency. Coincidentally, Albright, Smith and Fraser (1) have had a...

Van Dyke's Data on the Relation of Menstruation to the Growth of Girls

In an article appearing in this journal' Van Dyke comes to the conclusion that tall girls do not mature earlier than short His data concern twenty girls whose first menstruation occurred at the age of twelve or earlier, nineteen girls who matured at the age of thirteen, sixteen girls at the age of fourteen, and five girls at the age of fifteen. His information includes the heights and the weights of these girls for a period extending from two years prior to two years after the first menstruation. A quotation will indicate the method of analysis and his results. An effort was made to determine the influence of early or late maturing on height and weight. Baldwin says, Tall girls of a fairly homogeneous group, as a general rule, mature earlier than short ones. If this statement were true, one would expect to find that the tall girls in this investigation matured at an earlier age than did the short girls. The cases were arranged in rank order according to height two years before puberty. The lowest and highest fourths, or the fifteen shortest and the fifteen tallest girls, were selected, and the average age at which maturity first appeared was determined ..... For the fifteen shortest girls the average age was twelve years and six months, while for the fifteen tallest girls the average age was thirteen years and eleven months.2