Reply to Delayed puberty....what was the outcome?

Forum Index » Tweens and Teens

Reply to "Delayed puberty....what was the outcome? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have been in exactly your shoes. I'll cut to the chase and tell you it all works out!

Here's the long answer:
Son also was delayed to hit puberty, also tracked by endocrinologist at NIH and told delayed but not enough to take hormones. Started to grow in 11th grade and still growing at age 20. Is now over 6 ft 1 inches. Totally normal size.

The impact, though, was significant. Fell behind in sports (and therefore confidence) and friend group changed because he was so much smaller and less "fast" than his previous friends. His new friends were a much better match for him but it was a difficult adjustment, admittedly likely more for me because it is hard to see your child in pain. I think we underestimate how hard being small physically is for boys in high school.

So, long term, everything has worked out. GL.[/quote]

I had a similar experience as your son. The short of it is that it both immediate effects for me in high school/college and lingering effects beyond.  It caused me to be a late bloomer in other parts of my life.

For high school (all boys), I fell behind in athletics (went from a starter in certain middle school sports to pure bench rider) and socially (easy target for bullying for being smaller, having a high pitch voiced, etc.).  Socially I didn’t fall too far behind, but it still had an effect on my mental health and probably was the trigger to anxiety, self-esteem issues and over indulging.

College (big state flag ship) was really tough.  I kept up some what socially but really fell behind socially with the opposite sex compared to high school and the anxiety was expounded and affected my academics.

The anxiety carried over into grad school (law) and was extremely exacerbated by the way law school was structured (rankings, hide the ball style of teaching, lingering understanding of loans coming due and a shitty job market).

I have ended up with a solid job and a great family.  But it all felt like a really rough road to get there and I missed out on certain experiences my peers had.

I really don’t think there is a lot of recognition of the indirect issues this delay can cause.  I felt like no one was supportive (teachers, parents, etc) and society doesn’t really recognize late bloomers as some class of people needing support.  OP - I hope that if it seems like your son is falling behind socially that you can advocate for hormones/puberty starters if they are safe and/or mental health care for him.

Fell behind in athletics, was bullied for still having a high pitched voice and being small, etc.  All of which affected my self esteem greatly which in turn affected my academics as well.  I still hadn’t caught up by college, which continued to affect my self esteem and I believe trigger issues with anxiety. It also had affects on my interactions with the opposite sex that lingered. I also think the social issues this spurred continued to affect my self esteem and anxiety, which in turn were expounded by going to law school

While I did grow [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics