Adrenarche is the gradual increase in adrenal androgen secretion after approximately the age of 6 years in girls and 7 years in boys. It occurs independently from the gonadotrophin-dependent activation of the gonads in central puberty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This guidance applies to children with signs of adrenal hormone secretion, i.e pubic hair growth, body odour, greasy skin, but NO<\/strong> breast development in girls or testicular enlargement in boys. The latter are suggestive of gonadotrophin driven pubertal development and depending on the age of the child, may justify further investigations. C.M. & E.B. 23-09-25<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The following pathway gives more detailed guidance on differentiating children with simple adrenarche from those with pathological androgen excess or precocious puberty: Girls > age 6 and boys > age 7 with signs of adrenarche only. These children do warrant a follow-up appointment in primary care to ensure there is no growth acceleration or evolving signs of true precocious puberty or virilisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please refer via SCI Gateway to RHCYP – Endocrinology<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n The Scottish paediatric endocrine group website contains useful SPEG parent information leaflets<\/a>, including for adrenarche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adrenarche guideline – right decision service<\/a> Adrenarche is the gradual increase in adrenal androgen secretion after approximately the age of 6 years in girls and 7 years in boys. It occurs independently from the gonadotrophin-dependent activation of the gonads in central puberty. This guidance applies to children with signs of adrenal hormone secretion, i.e pubic hair growth, body odour, greasy skin,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":25163,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1313],"class_list":["post-25303","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-https-apps-nhslothian-scot-refhelp-puberty"],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"heatherlevy","author_link":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/author\/heatherlevy\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":" Puberty<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Adrenarche is the gradual increase in adrenal androgen secretion after approximately the age of 6 years in girls and 7 years in boys. It occurs independently from the gonadotrophin-dependent activation of the gonads in central puberty. This guidance applies to children with signs of adrenal hormone secretion, i.e pubic hair growth, body odour, greasy skin,","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25303"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25401,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25303\/revisions\/25401"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apps.nhslothian.scot\/refhelp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Clinical Significance<\/strong>
Adrenarche is a normal variant of pubertal development and does not require treatment. There has been previous concern that adrenarche may be associated with the development of insulin resistance, polycystic ovarian syndrome and metabolic syndrome, but this does not alter management or follow up.
Initial assessment should include:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/ul>\n
Who to refer:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Adrenarche guideline – right decision service<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In short, the following children should be referred:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Who not to refer:<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
How to refer:<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
RCPCH Growth Charts<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"