Investigation of early puberty prevalence and time of addition thelarche to pubarche in girls with premature pubarche: two-year follow-up results

Abstract

We aimed to determine the prevalence of early puberty in girls with premature pubarche and analyze the time interval between their pubarche and succeeding thelarche. This study included 60 female children with premature pubarche. We retrospectively collected clinical, laboratory, and radiological findings from all participants. We investigated the time interval between pubarche and thelarche in cases wherein premature pubarche was followed by thelarche. The mean age at onset of pubarche was 6.93 ± 0.79 yr old. Among the participants, 16.7% were preterm, 20% were small for gestational age (SGA), and 55% were overweight or obese. The mean time interval between pubarche and thelarche was 11.20 ± 7.41 mo. The mean serum DHEA-S level was higher in the preterm group (p = 0.016), and DHEA-S levels were generally higher in the SGA group (p = 0.004). This study documented the presence of being overweight or obese and having more advanced growth than their genetic potential in half of the patients who had premature pubarche. In addition to these identified risk factors, obesity-independent DHEA-S levels were observed to be higher in patients who had early puberty with the first six months of their follow-up considered to be the most critical time in predicting early puberty.