I don’t think having CAH or being treated for it would ever make you taller than you were meant to be.  I think the confusion here is understanding how the docs figure out what height you were "supposed" to be (your genetic potential); also understanding how height predictions during treatment are calculated.  Both of these numbers are just approximations, so if you take them out of context, I think they can lead you to dubious conclusions.     

 

Genetic potential is usually calculated based on the average of your parents’ heights, adjusted for sex.  This number is no more than just an educated guess....children are often inches taller or shorter than what they are "supposed" to be, even without CAH.  And, obviously, brothers (or sisters) with the same parents usually don’t end up at EXACTLY the same height, though their genetic potential is exactly the same. 

 

To assess how you are doing during treatment, doctors will often make height predictions based on bone age.  By comparing these hieght predictions to your genetic potential, you can get  a sense of how you are doing, over time.  Height predictions using bone age are made by understanding the correlation between bone age and percentage of final height completed.  Height predictions are very useful tools, but just that....a tool.  Depending on how tall you are at a given point in time, and what your bone age is at that moment, the prognosis can change dramatically. 

 

For example, if you looked at my son’s numbers on paper, you could probably wonder the exact same thing about him (can having CAH and being treated actually make him taller?).  When he was diagnosed, his bone age was about 13.  At the height he was then, this put his adult height prediction at about 5’-4." Today, his bone age is still about 13, but he is about 10 inches taller.  This makes his current height prediction an astonishing 6’-1"! His genetic potential, based on the heights of his parents, is only 5’-9."  That means that he has gone from a 5" height LOSS at diagnosis to a 4" height GAIN! 

 

But, do I think that this means having CAH or being treated for it has actually made him taller than what he would normally be?  Not on your life!  In fact, if we walked into the endo’s office tomorrow and find that his bone age has suddenly advanced a year, since the last time we checked 8 months ago, his height prediction would drop by about 5" in a second flat. 

 

The point is...it’s not over till it’s over.  Until, final height is reached, everything is an approximation, and it is difficult to draw meaningful conclusions.  And even after final numbers are reached, it can be difficult to draw conclusions about the efficacy of a particular approach to treatment, unitl there there have been large numbers of other children who have responded in the same way to the same treatment!