Management of short stature.

A 12-year-old girl is brought in by her mother, who is concerned because her daughter is short even compared with other family members. She estimates that her daughter has grown less than 3 cm ( 1 in) in the past year andasks if she should receive growth hormone-a treatment that was recently mentioned in a newspaper article. The girl has no significant past medical illness or family history of disease that might be associated with short stature and is free of symptoms. She is a good student and has not been subjected to physical or verbal bullying at school. Her father is 170 cm (5 ft 10 in) tall (10th percentile for a man), and her mother is 160 cm (5 ft 3 in) tall (25th percentile for a woman). Neither was a "late bloomer." On physical examination, the prepubertal girl has no signs of disease. Her height is 133 cm (4 ft 4 in) (. 5th percentile for age), and her weight is 35 kg (77 lb) (25th percentile).