Question
My daughter is almost 11 years old, and she recently experienced a change in her voice. Could this be a sign of precocious puberty?
Answer
Precocious puberty refers to the development of sexual characteristics before the age of sexual maturation, including breast development, the appearance of pubic and armpit hair, rapid growth in height and weight, and the development of external genitalia. The causes of precocious puberty are numerous and are often related to the premature activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis. Precocious puberty can be categorized into central (true) and peripheral (false) types. The main goal of treating central precocious puberty is to suppress or slow down the progression of puberty, especially to avoid menstruation and delay bone maturation, in order to restore normal psychological development.