ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Pediatric Endocrinology
This article is part of the Research TopicGrowth and Pubertal Development in Paediatric Endocrinology: From Physiological Pathways to Clinical ChallengesView all articles
Impact of BMI on basal LH in premenarcheal girls with idiopathic central precocious puberty
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Endocrinology, Genetics and Metabolism, Affiliated Fuzhou First Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
- 2Department of Endocrinology, Genetics and Metabolism, Fuzhou Children's Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
- 3Quanzhou Medical College, Quanzhou, China
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Aim: To examined whether body mass index (BMI) affects basal gonadotropin secretion in premenarcheal girls with idiopathic central precocious puberty (ICPP). Methods: This retrospective single-center study involved girls diagnosed with ICPP. They were classified into underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obesity groups based on BMI-z scores. Clinical assessments included measurements of uterine and ovarian volumes and bone age (BA). Basal and gonadotropin-releasing hormone-stimulated luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels were measured. Correlation and partial correlation analyses were performed to explore relationships between BMI and aforesaid clinical assessments. Results: 1077 girls (7.58 ± 0.91 years old) with ICPP were subdivided as normal weight (n=613), underweight (n=102), overweight(n=235), and obesity(n=115). Significant differences in clinical and hormonal characteristics were observed across weight groups. Underweight girls had lower basal LH as well as basal LH/FSH ratios compared to overweight and obesity groups. Overweight girls had higher basal LH than normal weight girls. Girls with obesity had no significant difference in basal LH compared to normal weight girls but had a positive within-group correlation between BMI and basal LH. Overall, BMI was positively correlated with basal LH, basal FSH, basal LH/FSH ratio, BA, BA-CA, uterine size and ovarian size, all of which persisted after adjusting for age and disease course. Conclusion: BMI is associated with basal LH in girls with ICPP, with distinct patterns across different weight groups. These findings highlight the importance of considering BMI when interpreting basal LH levels in the diagnosis of ICPP.
Keywords: basal luteinizing hormone, BMI, central precocious puberty, girls, Obesity
Received: 06 Nov 2025; Accepted: 11 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yuan, Zhang, Zhang, Wu and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ruimin Chen
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