The long term damage can not only affect bone but think about the possiblity of over exposure affecting your childs ability to learn.  Excess androgens don't just speed up maturation of the bone and consequently short stature. Think about that concept and apply it to the brain (posterior) that is responsible for behaviour and excitability or emotions.  When these levels are raised just a slight balance either way can cause a change in behaviour.  It's hard for a small child to take this in.  I know Ash has to learn to control it, but you also have to take into consideration that it has to be recognized that this is what happens before lethargy and all the physical aspects of a lack of cortisol.  It may affect long term growth but also other things.  When too much androgen is present and the child is stressed easily, then the rest of the adrenal gland starts producing adrenaline.  That over a long period of time can cause severe anxiety.  Anxiety that cannot be fixed with ritalin or prozac or other anti depressant.  They may relieve it, but they don't get to the root cause of the problem.  It has to be tackled at the root cause.  Mental health is every bit as important as physical health as if mental health is out of control, it affects physical health.  I want these things to be recognised so that Ashley doesn't perceive that people don't care.  He could learn coping strategies in addtion to knowing when his levels need assessing, but I need to work through things with his medical carers and get it recognized as legitimate in the first place.  In New Zealand here, our medical system is not as appropriate as it should be for these children.  There is a lot of room for improvement ...when I read these message boards, I feel so frustrated as a parent.   I don't want Ashley to think that JUST because he has CAH it's a good reason to act up.  I do want him to think that when he feels this way, it's just a bad day with his levels which inevitably it will be since it's not just physical stress but sometimes acute mental stress that affects levels.  Then even though he might like to apply a mind set, that he also need to get his levels addressed as soon as possible to help with that process.

 

Val

Im also concerned that in bone growth, at a certain point, it closes off and cannot go any further.  Apply that theory to the posterior brain and will you have an adult that will always be plagued with a poor inability to deal with stress.  Please appreciate that we do not have answers to this and my worries are in the circumstances founded.  These things are currently being researched into at the moment and I have already read that it affects the final outcome of the brain size in that area.  Experiments are carried out on rats and brain tissue has been examined .