The IQ of girls given puberty blockers for precocious puberty fell by eight points.

Cognitive Decline   Females   Pre-teens   Puberty blockers  

A study1 of 15 girls treated with puberty blockers for central precocious puberty showed that IQ fell by around eight points. The average fell from 102 (55th percentile) to 94 (34th percentile). Two patients were held back a year at school.

In another study2 of 30 children experiencing early puberty and treated with puberty blockers, IQ fell by around seven points.

  1. Wojniusz S, Callens N, Sütterlin S, Andersson S, De Schepper J, Gies I, Vanbesien J, De Waele K, Van Aken S, Craen M, Vögele C, Cools M, Haraldsen IR. Cognitive, Emotional, and Psychosocial Functioning of Girls Treated with Pharmacological Puberty Blockage for Idiopathic Central Precocious Puberty. Frontiers in Psychology. 2016 Jul 12;7:1053. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01053. PMID: 27462292; PMCID: PMC4940404. ↩︎
  2. Mul D, Versluis-den Bieman HJ, Slijper FM, Oostdijk W, Waelkens JJ, Drop SL. Psychological assessments before and after treatment of early puberty in adopted children. Acta Paediatrica. 2001 Sep;90(9):965-71. doi: 10.1080/080352501316978011. PMID: 11683207. ↩︎
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