Etiologies of precocious puberty: 15-year experience in a tertiary hospital in southern Thailand.

BACKGROUND Precocious puberty (PP) is defined as the appearance of secondary sex characteristic at an age <8 years in girls and <9 years in boys, or menarche <9 years in girls. OBJECTIVE To determine the etiologies and clinical characteristics of children presenting with PP. SUBJECTS AND METHOD The medical records of 307 children (292 girls, 15 boys) with PP (1995-2009) were reviewed. RESULTS The most common etiology of PP in girls was premature thelarche (35.5%), followed by early puberty (25.4%) and central precocious puberty (23.8%). All boys had underlying pathologic etiologies. The average age of girls with premature thelarche was significantly younger than those with any other etiologies (2.8 +/- 1.6 vs 6.7 +/- 1.7 years, p <0.001). Height and weight SDSs of girls with central precocious puberty and early puberty were significantly greater than those with premature thelarche. CONCLUSIONS The most common etiologies of PP in girls are premature thelarche in girls <6 years and early puberty in girls >6 years. PP in boys has to be investigated for underlying etiologies.