ESPE Abstracts

Objectives: We designed a longitudinal study to investigate the association between central pubertal activation with age at the appearance of clinical signs of puberty. We, therefore, assessed nocturnal gonadotropin secretion which can be detected in the form of total luteinizing hormone (LH) immunoreactivity in the daytime- and sleeptime-excreted urine.Methods: Thirty healthy volunteers (17 boys and 13 girls, aged 3.4&n...

Context: Transient thelarche (TT) corresponds to the appearance, regression and subsequent reappearance of the breast bud in girls. Only a single study about its frequency and progression is available (Lindhardt Johansen JCEM 2017).Objective and Hypotheses: To determine whether girls with TT girls (group 1) compared to girls without TT (group 2) show differences in i) timing/sequence of pubertal events ii) pattern of rep...

Introduction: The clinical hallmark of male puberty is testicular enlargement ≥4 ml. While this initial sign largely depends on central reactivation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis along with peripheral follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) action, the attainment of voice-break, activation of sweat- and sebaceous- glands, acne as well as axillary hair development require testosterone action.Objective: To investigate the tempo...

Background: Early growth trajectories are associated with childhood BMI and fat distribution as well as adulthood type 2 diabetes. Mechanisms by which early growth determines later adiposity remain unclear, but the effect may be mediated through adipocytokines.Objective and hypotheses: We describe the association between infant growth, adolescent fat distribution and serum adipocytokines. We hypothesize that poor or rapid early growth is associated with ...

Background: Alterations in the timing or expression level of players involved in sex determination and differentiation can cause disorders of sex development, gonadal dysgenesis and germ cell neoplasms later in life. The mitosis–meiosis switch is one of the first manifestations of female sex differentiation and we hypothesise that a conflict between meiosis-inhibiting (male pathway) and meiosis-inducing signals (female pathway) is one of the possible mechanisms for disrup...

Background: Since the late 1960’s, pubertal breast staging has been based on Tanner’s classification. Appearance of glandular breast tissue may be difficult to distinguish by palpation from the surrounding subcutaneous fat tissue, especially in obese girls. To our knowledge, validation of the clinical assessment of pubertal stages by MRI quantification of glandular breast tissue has never been performed.Objective and hypotheses: i) To report no...

Background: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) related to genes encoding the FSHβ subunit and FSH receptor (FSHB/FSHR) affect FSH production (FSHB c.-211G>T) and receptor sensitivity/expression in vitro (FSHR c.2039A>G & FSHR c.-29G>A). FSHR c.2039A>G, but not FSHR c.-29G>A, is associated with increased FSH levels in adult women, while there are conflicting results on F...

Background: Intermittent breast budding (girls entering stage B2 and then subsequently regressing to B1) in healthy girls is a frequent phenomenon observed by most clinicians. However, little is known of normal progression of female puberty, and the phenomenon of transient breast development has, to our knowledge, never been studied in details.Objective and hypotheses: We present and validate the female Puberty Nomogram indicating age specific SD<...

Background: Congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH) provides a model to study the impact of sex steroid deficiency on childhood growth.Aims and objectives: We characterised growth patterns in male CHH patients with special emphasis on growth during the minipuberty of infancy.Methods: Growth charts of 38 men with CHH (28 from Finland and 10 from Denmark) were evaluated. Fifteen (39%) patients had representative length measure...

Background: The anogenital distance (AGD) is defined as the distance from the anus to genital tubercle. AGD is an established method for sex determination of pups in rodents, and in animal studies, AGD is strongly affected by androgen exposure during fetal life. In accordance, human studies have reported reduced postnatal AGD following prenatal exposure to anti-androgenic agents, suggesting AGD to be a sensitive postnatal read out of in utero exposure...