A recent study in the journal Neurology found a strong tie between growth hormone treatment in childhood and the risk of having a stroke as an adult. The study tracked nearly 7,000 children who were short but otherwise healthy and treated with growth hormones. They were followed to an average age of 28. There were 11 strokes during the study, about twice as many as researchers would have expected. Four of them were fatal. Strokes that cause bleeding in the brain (called hemorrhagic strokes) seemed to be a particular risk.
A 2012 study by the same group of researchers found that kids with short stature treated with growth hormones, whether or not they had growth hormone deficiency, had a higher risk of early death as adults. The increased risk seemed to be driven by greater numbers of bone cancers and bleeding in the brain.
And growth hormones may raise a child’s risk for type 2 diabetes. A study published in 2000 in the Lancet, which reviewed records of more than 23,000 kids treated with growth hormones for an average of 3 years, found that 18 developed type 2 diabetes, about six times as many as researchers expected.
How much extra height could a child get from growth hormones? Studies have shown the average gain for kids treated for about 5 1/2 years is about 2 inches.
Higher-dose shots may yield even bigger benefits. One study of 128 children treated at a single clinic with a slightly higher dose of growth hormone saw height gains in the range of about 3 to 4 1/2 inches.
But that growth definitely comes at a cost. The price of treatment ranges from $10,000 to $60,000 annually. That works out to a cost of about $52,000 an inch. And insurance coverage for the shots varies.