Nutritional and Pubertal Disorders

Abstract

Caloric-protein malnutrition can slow growth and cause pubertal delay. This chapter focuses on endocrine abnormalities and pubertal alterations in patients with eating disorders, childhood obesity, the female athlete triad and children cancer survivors. Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) exhibit multiple endocrine abnormalities, including isolated hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. The delay in pubertal development and reduction in growth seen in AN patients may be a direct result of malnutrition. Appropriate psychiatric, nutritional and hormonal therapy is necessary. It is suggested that obesity during childhood can accelerate pubertal onset and these children usually exhibit accelerated linear growth during puberty. In girls the relationship between childhood obesity and early pubertal onset could be related to their insulin resistance and/or hyperinsulinemia. The female athlete triad is often observed in physically active girls and women in whom low energy availability with or without disordered eating, menstrual dysfunction and low bone mineral density can be present. In prepubertal girls excess exercise can cause delayed menarche with no effects on adult height, while in postpubertal females it results in menstrual cycle irregularities. The consequences of childhood cancer depend on the type of cancer, its location, the age at which the disease was diagnosed, the dose of radiotherapy, and the type and dose of chemotherapy.