Girl’s Brain Tumour Triggered Puberty at Age Six

A girl who was diagnosed with a brain tumour has been robbed of her childhood after the illness caused her to start puberty at the age of six.

Single mum, Sarah Tweedie-Connor, 36, from Coventry, West Midlands, had noticed that her daughter, Teri-Leigh was growing pubic hair and breasts and stood a head above all her friends four years ago.

When she took her to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, doctors told them that Teri-Leigh has been diagnosed with non-cancerous brain tumour called hypothalamic hamartoma — which affects one in 200,000 people. It can also cause epileptic fits, precocious puberty and behavioural problems — which means she is experiencing the symptoms of puberty years earlier than her peers.

Now, despite being in year five at primary school, Teri-Leigh has been banned from the playground because at 5ft 2in with a ‘mature face’, she looks ‘more like a teenager’, and has mood swings which cause erratic behaviour.

“It’s heartbreaking to see my daughter wonder why she looks nothing like her friends. She’s so self-conscious.

“While other kids who are Teri-Leigh’s age are running around concentrating on nothing but being children, my daughter is worrying about the changes in her body and battling mood swings,” she said.

When Teri-Leigh was six years old, she already stood at 4ft 8in, way above her school friends. A year later, she had pubic hair and small breasts despite only being in first grade at school.

Teri-Leigh is now undergoing hormone injections to prevent her periods from starting. However, this will not reverse the effects of the condition so far.

“I just want my daughter to be able to enjoy her childhood without feeling self-conscious,” Ms Tweedie-Connor said.

Medics at Walsall University Hospital began tests, and discovered that Teri-Leigh’s bone growth matched that of a ten-year-old but they were not sure why. When she was aged seven, Teri-Leigh was prescribed monthly injections of hormone triptorelin to halt her sexual development, but the hormones caused her to have mood swings like a teen.

Now 10 years old, Teri-Leigh’s breasts are developing and she still has mood swings. She is even taller and stronger than her 12-year-old brother, Ewan.

She and her mother are now raising money for Hope for Hypothalamic Hamartoma UK. “We want to raise awareness about this condition. Strangers mistake Teri-Leigh for a teenager acting up when she has mood swings in public, and I just want to tell them that she’s just a child…We hope by sharing her story we can raise awareness about this relatively unheard of condition and end the stigma my girl has to face on a daily basis,” Ms Tweedie-Connor said.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk