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Types of Growth Disorders

Some children experience slow growth due to factors such as diet, emotional stress, or disease. For a small number of children and adults, their short stature is caused by a medical condition that either slows or stops growth. Norditropin® is used to treat some of these conditions.


What is Turner syndrome?

Turner syndrome is a genetic disorder in girls, which can cause short stature, ovarian failure, and certain health problems. It is a rare disorder, present in approximately 1 in 2,500 females.

What causes Turner syndrome?

Inside every cell of our bodies are 23 pairs of chromosomes, which contain the genes that control traits such as eye color, hair color, and height. Turner syndrome is caused by a problem with a particular pair of chromosomes—the ones that determine a baby’s gender. Normally, girls have two X chromosomes, while boys have an X and a Y chromosome.

If your daughter has Turner syndrome, one of the following may be the case:


She has only one X chromosome


She has two X chromosomes, but one has an abnormality in or is missing the part that affects physical development, height, and other characteristics

What are the physical features of Turner syndrome?

Turner syndrome may affect girls in different ways, but shorter-than-normal height is among the most common signs. In fact, more than 95% of adult women with Turner syndrome are shorter than average. Girls with Turner syndrome may start to slow down in their growth as early as 18 months of age, and continue to grow slowly through childhood.

Girls with Turner syndrome may share other common conditions:


Heart defects


Short neck with a webbed appearance


Low hairline at the back of the neck


Differently shaped, low-set ears


High-arched palate



Drooping eyelids


Short stature


Ovarian failure


Broad chest


Lymphedema (puffy hands and feet)


You won’t see all of these traits in every girl with Turner syndrome—but most do have ovarian failure.

Surprising fact: Short stature in girls with Turner syndrome is not due to a lack of growth hormone, but, for unknown reasons, the girl does not respond to the growth hormone she makes herself.

What about puberty?

Puberty is the time when a child’s body matures into an adult body. For girls with Turner syndrome who have ovarian failure, puberty doesn’t happen naturally on its own. And, they typically don’t experience the growth spurt that often accompanies puberty. Often, it’s the absence of this growth spurt or delay in puberty that may prompt a doctor to look for the presence of a condition that is preventing normal growth.

How is Turner syndrome diagnosed?

About one-third of patients with Turner syndrome are diagnosed as newborns due to puffy hands and feet (lymphedema) or thicker-than-normal neck skin. Another third are diagnosed in mid-childhood by their short stature, and other patients are diagnosed in adolescence when they fail to enter puberty or as adults because of recurrent pregnancy loss.

To diagnose Turner syndrome, your child may be referred to a pediatric endocrinologist, a doctor who specializes in hormone diseases in children. The pediatric endocrinologist will do a blood test to examine her genetic makeup. This test, called a “karyotype,” arranges the chromosomes to identify any that are missing. It also tells which are abnormally shaped or have missing pieces.


Puffy hands and feet
Thick neck skin


Short stature


Failure to enter puberty or recurrent pregnancy loss in adulthood



Puffy hands and feet
Thick neck skin


Short stature
 


Failure to enter puberty or recurrent pregnancy loss in adulthood


After the diagnosis.

After diagnosing your child with Turner syndrome, your child’s pediatric endocrinologist may recommend a treatment such as growth hormone, and will likely ask for regular follow-up visits to monitor your child’s growth and make sure that treatment is working well.

Parents and caregivers can find community, support, and educational resources through growth-related patient advocacy groups. Visit the Turner Syndrome Foundation and Turner Syndrome Society to learn more.

Find support.

Parents and caregivers of children with growth disorders can find support, community, and education through growth-related patient organizations, such as the MAGIC Foundation.

Norditropin® stories.

Learn more about what life is like for families whose children are being treated with Norditropin®.

Selected Important Safety Information

Do not use Norditropin® if: you have a critical illness caused by certain types of heart or stomach surgery, trauma or breathing (respiratory) problems; you are a child with Prader-Willi syndrome who is severely obese or has breathing problems including sleep apnea; you have cancer or other tumors; you are allergic to somatropin or any of the ingredients in Norditropin®; your healthcare provider tells you that you have certain types of eye problems caused by diabetes (diabetic retinopathy); you are a child with closed bone growth plates (epiphyses).

Indications and Usage

What is Norditropin® (somatropin) injection?
 
Norditropin® is a prescription medicine that contains human growth hormone and is used to treat:
  • children who are not growing because of low or no growth hormone 
  • children who are short (in stature) and who have Noonan syndrome, Turner syndrome, or were born small (small for gestational age-SGA) and have not caught-up in growth by age 2 to 4 years 
  • children who have Idiopathic Short Stature (ISS) 
  • children who are not growing who have Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) 
  • adults who do not make enough growth hormone

Important Safety Information (cont’d)

Before taking Norditropin®, tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you:

  • have had heart or stomach surgery, trauma or serious breathing (respiratory problems) 
  • have had a history of problems breathing while you sleep (sleep apnea) 
  • have or have had cancer or any tumor 
  • have diabetes 
  • are pregnant or breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant or breastfeed

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Norditropin® may affect how other medicines work, and other medicines may affect how Norditropin® works.

How should I use Norditropin®?

  • Use Norditropin® exactly as your health care provider tells you to 
  • Do not share your Norditropin® pens and needles with another person even if the needle has been changed. You may give another person an infection or get an infection from them.

What are the possible side effects of Norditropin®?
Norditropin® may cause serious side effects, including:

  • high risk of death in people who have critical illnesses because of heart or stomach surgery, trauma or serious breathing (respiratory) problems 
  • high risk of sudden death in children with Prader-Willi syndrome who are severely obese or have breathing problems including sleep apnea 
  • increased risk of growth of cancer or a tumor that is already present and increased risk of the return of cancer or a tumor in people who were treated with radiation to the brain or head as children and who developed low growth hormone problems. Contact the healthcare provider if you or your child start to have headaches, or have changes in behavior, changes in vision, or changes in moles, birthmarks, or the color of your skin 
  • new or worsening high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) or diabetes 
  • increase in pressure in the skull (intracranial hypertension). If you or your child has headaches, eye problems, nausea or vomiting, contact the healthcare provider 
  • serious allergic reactions. Get medical help right away if you or your child has the following symptoms: swelling of your face, lips, mouth or tongue, trouble breathing, wheezing, severe itching, skin rashes, redness or swelling, dizziness or fainting, fast heartbeat or pounding in your chest, or sweating 
  • your body holding too much fluid (fluid retention) such as swelling in the hands and feet, pain in your joints or muscles or nerve problems that cause pain, burning, or tingling in the hands, arms, legs and feet. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any of these signs or symptoms of fluid retention. 
  • decrease in a hormone called cortisol. Tell your or your child’s healthcare provider if you or your child has darkening of the skin, severe fatigue, dizziness, weakness or weight loss 
  • decrease in thyroid hormone levels 
  • hip and knee pain or a limp in children (slipped capital femoral epiphysis) 
  • worsening of pre-existing curvature of the spine (scoliosis) 
  • severe and constant abdominal pain can be a sign of pancreatitis. Tell your or your child’s healthcare provider if you or your child has any new abdominal pain. 
  • loss of fat and tissue weakness in the area of skin you inject 
  • increase in phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, and parathyroid hormone levels in your blood

The most common side effects of Norditropin® include:

  • injection site reactions and rashes, and headaches

Please click here for Norditropin® Prescribing Information.

Norditropin® is a prescription medication.

Novo Nordisk provides patient assistance for those who qualify. Please call 1-866-310-7549 to learn more about Novo Nordisk assistance programs.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800- FDA-1088.

Talk to your health care provider and find out if Norditropin® is right for you or your child.