If the cause of the precocious sexual development is premature activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis in the same pattern that occurs at a normal age in normal puberty, the diagnosis is central precocious puberty.
If, however, the aetiology is exogenous administration of sex steroids, autonomous production of sex steroids from the adrenal gland or gonad, or autonomous gonadotrophin production in boys, the diagnosis is incomplete sexual precocity. Girls who virilise and boys who feminise have contrasexual precocity.
All patients with sexual precocity experience the effects of increased sex steroids. Therefore, they grow in stature at a rate faster than is appropriate for their chronological age, and their bone age advances too quickly.
