Foreword

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The apocryphal story of the medical student in surgery with a difficult attending surgeon goes like this: After a few days of being criticized after every snip of the suture scissors, the student, when the surgeon said, “Cut!” calmly asked, “Would you like them too long or too short this time, sir?” And so it goes with puberty—every adolescent thinks he or she is too early or too late, too short or too tall, too flat or too buxom. Of course, the vast majority of teens develop perfectly normally despite their worries, but a few do not, and almost all need reassurance. In this issue of Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care, Drs. Todd Nebesio and Erika Eugster from Riley Hospital for Children address abnormalities in the timing of puberty, the usual causes, and current concepts of treatment. As they note early in their article, most variants are nonpathologic. Astute observation and careful evaluation will allow the majority of parents and patients to be safely reassured and will reveal those few who need further work-up. The logical and thorough discussion here will help our readers stay fully up-to-date in this most important area of practice.