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Constitutional Delay of Growth

Meaning

Constitutional delay of growth and puberty, often abbreviated as CDGP, is a common variation of normal physical development characterized by a transient delay in both skeletal maturation and the onset of puberty. Children with CDGP are typically short for their age during mid-childhood but follow a normal, albeit delayed, growth velocity and will eventually achieve a normal adult height. This condition represents a temporary divergence from the standard growth curve and is often a familial pattern. It is fundamentally a diagnosis of exclusion, requiring clinicians to rule out pathological causes of short stature and pubertal delay.