ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Puberty generates hormonal changes which induce physical changes like the development of secondary sexual characteristics, which cause discomfort in the transgender person. GnRHa stops puberty, which reduces the changes in the body and allows the teenager to have time to consider their gender identity. However, an expected side effect of these drugs is the reduction of growth velocity.

Objective: Determine the growth rate of adolescents and transgender children subjected to puberal block therapies.

Methodology: We perform a longitudinal study using half-yearly anthropometric and analytical measurements, collected 1 year before and 2 years after the blockage, to assess whether the rate of growth is decreased in adolescents with puberal block. The comparison is made using standard deviations of the variables according to age, through the Wilcoxon range test in paired groups and the U-Mann Whitney test, in independent groups. To obtain the data, we have reviewed the medical records of the participants of our study.

Results: We studied 55 transgender adolescents who started puberal suppression with a median age of 11.8 years. It is observed that the size measured in standard deviations (SD) and the growth rate, measured in centimeters and SD, decrease by increasing the time in puberal block. When comparing trans boys and girls, there is a greater decrease in trans girls in SD height. These differences are statistically significant in the measures before blockage and at 6 and 12 months of PS therapy (P = 0.036, P = 0.005 and P = 0042, respectively). In addition, it was also observed that the growth rate was more affected in trans girls than in boys, although these differences were not statistically significant.

Conclusions: Growth rate and height are reduced by blocking puberty. This decrease is more striking in trans girls than in trans boys. Probably related to later PB in age and pubertal stage.