What Determines a Person’s Height? The Truth About Growth Hormone

28 października 2025

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Why are some people tall, and others are not? Can this be influenced? Besides heredity, what determines our growth? The answer to all these questions is the same — growth hormone.

Najważniejsze wnioski

Why are some people tall, and others are not?
What is the cause for concern?
How are excess and deficient growth hormones treated?

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Dla osób zgłębiających Pediatrics przez hormones, height.

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Autor artykułu

Dr. Julia

Endocrinologist

Growth hormone, somatotropin, and STH are synonyms for the same substance that affects human growth and development. The maximum amount of growth hormone is produced at 4–6 months of the prenatal period of a child's life. After the birth of a baby, the level of STH in the blood remains high until the onset of sexual development and begins to decline after 20–25 years. It is thanks to somatotropin that children's bones grow in length, and muscles accumulate protein.

Therefore, doctors are strongly against a vegan diet for babies. This is due not only to growth but also to overall physical development. The level of growth hormone increases as the child grows up, and its concentration peaks during puberty.

The growth of a child depends not only on the hereditary factor — the growth of the father and mother — but also on hormonal levels. The earlier puberty begins, the faster the child stops growing since the growth points of the tubular bones are closed. In rare cases, growth stops at rates well below normal, in which doctors talk about dwarfism. With late development, the child can exceed normal growth rates up to gigantism, which is often accompanied by a weak sexual constitution.

What is the cause for concern?

The production of growth hormone is caused by genetic factors, and any failure in its production is a genetic mutation that cannot be predicted or prevented.

Due to somatotropic insufficiency, dwarfism develops in children. Such children are born with normal body weight and limb length. Dwarfism manifests itself by 3–4 years of age, and before the child grows normally. The problem is that the baby receives prolactin with breast milk. This is another pituitary hormone that is structurally similar to GH. In early childhood, prolactin acts as a growth hormone. But as soon as breastfeeding is stopped, STH deficiency will occur.

The reason for concern should be the slowdown in the growth of the baby at 3–4 years old when growth should normally increase by 7–8 cm per year.

When growth hormone levels rise, bones and muscles grow very quickly. Sometimes a child not only surpasses his peers in growth but becomes much taller than everyone else. In this case, the proportions of the limbs, trunk, and head are not affected.

How are excess and deficient growth hormones treated?

If too much growth hormone is secreted in the body, doctors usually perform surgery and remove the tumor that caused the gigantism. If the test shows that the pituitary gland is responding to stimuli, medications may be prescribed to normalize the level of STH in the blood.

If a child has a suspicion of growth hormone deficiency, he or she will be sent for a consultation with a pediatric endocrinologist. A test of growth hormone in the blood and urine, X-ray, or MRI examination is required. These methods allow the doctor to reliably confirm or deny the diagnosis.

To date, the only effective treatment for this disease is the introduction of synthetic analogs of growth hormone in the form of continuous injections.

Why do adults need growth hormone?

Traditionally it has been believed that the level of growth hormone in adults is not important. However, growth hormone in adults regulates metabolism, affects mental health, accelerates wound healing, and counteracts aging.

Growth hormone deficiency in adults leads to obesity, with fat mainly accumulating in the waist area. Growth hormone also increases the level of endorphins, which are pleasure hormones that stimulate the central nervous system. With a deficiency of growth hormone, weakness, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and loss of control over emotions can occur. If you observe all these symptoms in yourself, it is worth taking an appropriate test.

Treatment with somatotropic hormone mixtures for people suffering from its deficiency should be carried out for life. However, growth hormone injections will not help an adult. After reaching a genetically programmed length, bones no longer grow.

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