Human growth hormone or HGH is a dynamic constituent of the human endocrine system. It gets secreted by the pituitary gland located at the base of your brain. This hormone is necessary to promote growth and height during childhood and adolescence. In adulthood, the presence of HGH leads to an improved body composition and does several vital jobs, like strengthening bones, keeping your body lean, slowing down the process of aging, improving circulation, protecting your organs from getting weakened due to age, providing a favorable cholesterol profile, promoting rapid hair and nail growth etc. Regretfully, the natural production of HGH declines with your age.
Introduction of man-made hormone
Humatrope is an artificial form of HGH which got its first approval in 1987. It was introduced to treat children whose process of growing was slower as they couldn’t produce sufficient growth hormone on their own. From that time onwards, it has been sanctioned for treating various growth disorders, such as Turner syndrome, SHOX deficiency, and small for gestational age, idiopathic short stature and shortage of growth hormone. However, this form of HGH is not meant for everyone that includes cases where the levels of growth hormone are low. Another generic name for this is somatropin and it is designed using recombinant DNA technologies or rDNA.
This is obtainable in 6 mg, 12mg and 24 mg capacity cartridges for use in an injectable device. It can also be got in vials for using a syringe and a needle. It can only be used when your physician has recommended this therapy plan for you and you are aware of your expectations from it. Do not be hesitant to have a free talk with your doctor. When he has recommended this medicine to you, ask him the benefits and risks linked to its usage. This medicinal type is not cheap so it is vital to be aware of the hazards associated with this growth hormone therapy.
Who are forbidden to use this therapy?
This medicine shouldn’t be used by –
- People suffering from severe complications after going through open heart surgery, serious injuries that involve different body systems, abdominal surgery or life-threatening breathing problems.
- People suffering from active cancer.
- Children suffering from Prader-Willi syndrome or children who are excessively obese.
- Children having closed growth plates in their bones.
- People having allergic reaction to GH.
- People having a diabetic disease of the retina.
Dosage and mechanism of delivery
Humatrope dosage and the process of delivery are usually determined based on a case-by-case method. The injection sites should be regularly changed and administered subcutaneously. The dosage largely varies according to the condition of the problem. According to the prescribing information, this should be used like –
- For GH shortage in children – 0.18 to 0.30 mg/kg/week
- For Turner syndrome –dose upto 0.375 mg/kg/week
- Idiopathic short stature – dose upto 0.37 mg/kg/week
- SHOX deficiency – 0.35 mg/kg/week
- Small for gestational age or SGA – dose upto 0.47 mg/kg/week
Dose for treating adult growth hormone shortages are sometimes weight-based and sometimes non-weight-based
- For weight-based, the quantity should not exceed 0.006 mg/kg each day. The maximum limit should be 0.0125 mg/kg/day
- For non-weight-based – dosage could be started at 0.2 mg/day. However, the dosage can be slowly increased each month or two in small augmentations.
