Side effects of HGH usage with children

This week I obtained an article regarding HGH use for children who need synthetic growth hormones for increased cell production due to bodily deficiencies that result in insufficient growth.  Recumbent HGH (rHGH) is used to treat such deficiencies but recent studies, such as this one, have been monitoring side effects of this treatment.  These side effects range from fevers and rash, which are normally temporary, to abnormalities with pubic growth.  These pubic growth problems are a result of the increased cell production that is caused from a synthetic growth aid.  This treatment can also have negative effects on kidneys, which go through long processes filtering rHGH from the body.

For individuals that experience organ damage and growth defects, the patients must undergo organ transplants or removal.  This surgery can affect the rest of the patients of the surgery lives by making these people more prone to disease and health problems.  Aside from these major problems, these people can also not partake in activities that are physically demanding on the body, like playing strenuous sports.  While organ transplants seem like such an easy solution to this problem, it is difficult to find people willing to donate these organs or obtain organs from donors that are in good shape.  Another side effect are changes in overall life mortality, which is why this treatment must be disclosed when applying for life insurance.  As an actuarial science major, I evaluate these health risks and calculate this into a policy by using a technique call age rating, which simply means a person who is 18 with a health defect applying for a policy will be treated as if they are an older age, such as 23 (hypothetical).

All in all, while rHGH is a good treatment for problems with growth in children, this treatment comes with many strings attached.  When considering this treatment for children, parents or guardians must weigh the potential side effects and evaluate other alternatives.  In the study conducted, they also found a range of other diseases that have an affiliated trend with rHGH treatment and make the issue multidimensional.

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-27302011000800009&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en