Growth hormone therapy

Growth hormone therapy is the medical use of growth hormone as a prescription medicine. The hormone is a peptide made by the pituitary gland that drives growth and cell reproduction, and treatment replaces it where the body makes too little. For about three decades, from the late 1950s until the late 1980s, the supply was extracted from human pituitary glands collected at autopsy and distributed through national programmes such as the United States National Pituitary Agency, which meant only the most severely deficient children could be treated. After four young adults who had received that extracted hormone developed Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in 1985, its use stopped quickly and recombinant human growth hormone, first marketed as Protropin, took its place. Beyond childhood and adult growth hormone deficiency, approved uses have included Turner syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, chronic kidney failure and short stature after poor growth before birth. Idiopathic short stature remains one of the most debated indications, and the record includes ethical arguments, safety warnings from regulators and long running public controversy over off-label and anti-aging use.