Advocacy group says growth-suppression therapy using estrogen may be harmful.(Brief Article)

2002 APR 18 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A generation ago, many doctors prescribed estrogen to suppress the growth of girls who were destined to be over 6 feet tall. Far fewer doctors do so today, according to a new survey.

But an advocacy group condemned any continuation of growth-suppression therapy and petitioned the government to place a warning label on all estrogen products, branding its use potentially dangerous.

"My gripe is that nobody knows if it's safe or not," said Dr. Neal Barnard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Yet "kids have been treated since the 1950s. Why has there been no monitoring?" asked Barnard, a well-known estrogen critic.

Girls' increasing production of estrogen during puberty causes the skeleton to mature so that growth eventually stops. Giving them estrogen pills can speed up that bone maturation and suppress growth somewhat, by up to 2 inches.

It first was tried in 1956; by 1978, one survey suggested half of pediatric endocrinologists offered it to girls expected to be taller than 6-foot-1 as adults.

Typically, a very tall mother brought her daughter to a hormone specialist, saying she didn't want the child to face the social or psychological issues that she recalled because of height, said Dr. Joseph Sanfilippo of the University of Pittsburgh.

But being tall is not a disease, he noted. Over time, social values changed - supermodels often are over 6 feet tall. Consequently, "it's been years since I've had this request," Sanfilippo said.