Delayed Puberty
Delayed puberty is defined as the absence of pubertal development in a girl by the age of 14. It may simply be constitutional, and events will come to pass in due time, but it can be a complication of any severe form of childhood illness - asthma, cystic fibrosis, heart disease; the result of excessive physical training, anorexia nervosa (because puberty doesn’t start until you reach a certain body mass), pituitary failure, a part of Turner’s syndrome (where the chromosome count is 46X rather than 46XX and the ovaries do not develop) or a complication of a brain tumour. If these problems are suspected it may merit investigation.
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