Reproductive potential assesment of adolescent girls with gynecological pathology, born low to gestational weight

Abstract

The timing of puberty depends on many genetic factors and external conditions: race and ethnicity, environmental characteristics, geographical location and even the nature of nutrition. Often the cause of functional delayed puberty is the syndrome of delayed fetal development.

Purpose - to study the main indicators of development and formation of the reproductive system of adolescent girls with gynecological pathology, born with a deficit of body weight.

Materials and methods. We examined 53 adolescent girls aged 13-18 years, who were divided into groups according to body weight at birth. Group 1 (main) - 26 girls born weighing less than 3000.0 grams. The second group (comparison) included 27 girls born with a body weight of 3000-3700.0 grams. The survey included analysis of anamnesis data, assessment of levels of physical and sexual development.

Results. The mean age of the subjects was 14.5±1.8 years [12.7; 16.3]. For girls who were born with low body weight, during puberty there was a lower dynamics of annual weight gain and average body weight compared to girls in group 2. In all age periods there was a significant lag in growth in the 1st group compared to the 2nd group. The growth deficit in 13-14 years was 3.5 cm, in 15-16 years - 3.7 cm, and in 17-18 years - 4.2 cm. The largest increase in the external size of the pelvis compared to the previous age period is observed in 15-16 years. In the 1st and 2nd groups of the transverse dimensions of the pelvis d.cristarum increases most intensively, slightly less - d.trochanterica. Analyzing the indicators of the main external dimensions of the pelvis, we can conclude that at the age of 13-14 and 15-16 years in girls of the 1st group, the size of the pelvis did not differ from the parameters in the 2nd group. However, in 17-18 years, all the external dimensions of the pelvis lagged behind the data in the 2nd group by an average of 1 cm, which indicates a tendency to form a narrow pelvis in girls born with low body weight. The average total score of sexual development in the 1st group in all studied age periods was significantly lower than in the 2nd.

Conclusions. For girls born with low body weight, there is a tendency to delay sexual development by the nature of pubic hair, but by the end of puberty, this feature is close to the parameters of peers born with normal body weight. Thus, by the age of 18, almost all girls born with normal body weight have a complete degree of secondary sexual characteristics, typical of women of childbearing age. While girls born with low body weight, there was a slowdown in the formation of secondary sexual characteristics in adolescence.

The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki declaration. The study protocol was approved by the Local ethics committee of the participating institution. The informed consent of the patient was obtained for conducting the studies.

No conflict of interest was declared by the authors.