South Korea’s obsession with success in life is taking parents to extremes: drugging young children

We reported this a few months ago, when in South Korea they started talking openly about a “national emergency.” The country is facing a deep demographic crisis, which is worst if we take into account that it has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, and that is what has led it to take desperate measures. A scenario where children are a “precious asset” that must be taken care of, and where the vision towards their future is so demanding that they do not hesitate to enroll them in academies so that they can be more competitive, or to give them medicine Don’t hesitate to give. They “don’t measure up.”

News. A few days ago, Nikkei reported on a problem that is becoming increasingly prevalent in South Korean society. It all starts with a basic idea: the deeply rooted belief in South Korean society that taller people have a better chance of succeeding in life.

Problem? This idea is leading parents to turn to hormone treatments, supplements and other tools in hopes of raising taller kids. An obsession with the height of young children is raising concerns about what some consider an unhealthy obsession with appearance.

Faith. In South Korea the idea that taller people are more likely to be successful comes from a combination of social and cultural factors. One of them is the assumption that height is associated with good health and nutrition, which may reflect socioeconomic status in a rapidly developing country.

Furthermore, in the competitive South Korean work environment, physical characteristics such as height are considered a valuable asset in some professional fields, reinforcing the idea that being tall can facilitate success in life and business.

An example. Kim Shin-young, 43, a resident of southern Seoul, shared her experience with her 11-year-old son’s non-reimbursable growth hormone injections that she started two and a half years ago. The child was prescribed Growthtropin II from Dong-A ST. Despite the financial burden of about 7 million won annually, Kim injects her son every night, six days a week.

The little boy’s initial height, which was about 10 centimeters shorter than the average for his age at the beginning of 2021, had improved to about six centimeters lower by the end of 2023. The cost of the drug, which can amount to 10 million won (about 6,700 euros) annually, presents a major financial challenge for parents, which can last for six or seven years.

According to Kim, she was discouraged from seeking reimbursement due to fear that the “patient” label on her son could affect his future job opportunities or health insurance membership.

Inside story. Late last year, a report raised concerns about the dynamics taking place. In Korea, reimbursement for growth hormone treatment is limited to cases of short stature due to pediatric growth hormone deficiency, Turner syndrome, pediatric chronic kidney disease, Prader-Willi syndrome, and Noonan syndrome. Children suffering from any of these conditions will have to pay only 5% of the total cost, with the rest being paid by the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS).

This means an annual medical cost of about 350,000 won ($264) to 500,000 won ($377) per child for growth hormone injections. It turns out that 97% of these growth hormone injections were prescribed without reimbursement. In other words, most of the injections were given to healthy children just to increase height, with an annual cost of up to 10 million won ($7,548).

More worrying data. According to data obtained by Democratic Party of Korea representative Kim Young-ju from the Ministry of Food and Security, over the past three years, 10.66 million injections of 24 types of growth hormone were prescribed at 5,761 medical centers around the world.

Well, only 300,000 of those injections were for diagnosed patients. The rest: apparently healthy children, but “small”, or smaller than the “standard” expected by their parents.

There is no science. Contrary to the country’s popular belief about the effectiveness of growth hormone injections, a study from the National Evidence-Based Healthcare Collaboration Agency (NECA) indicates otherwise. Yang Sei-won, an endocrinology specialist and professor emeritus at Seoul National University Hospital, emphasized that growth hormone injections do not guarantee increased height.

He said clinical trials have shown an initial increase in growth rate and a subsequent decline, with potential side effects such as muscle pain, edema, hypothyroidism and pancreatitis. Furthermore, the expert pointed out that other side effects may include gynecomastia, excessive development of breast tissues in children and difficulty in breathing and severe allergic reactions like hives.

Another study conducted in the United States analyzed 11,000 children. For those receiving growth hormone therapy without growth hormone deficiency, the risk of future diabetes was found to be 8.5 times higher, and the drug has risks including scoliosis, hip joint dislocation, transient diabetes, headache, edema, and vomiting.

misleading advertising. This is the second step that the government is now trying to take forward. The Ministry of Food and Pharmaceutical Safety, together with 17 local governments, announced a crackdown in June against false or exaggerated advertisements for growth hormone treatments, at a time when the private market for height-boosting products was only growing.

This news means that hospitals, pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies will be subject to guidance and administrative measures if they are found to be providing exaggerated or false advertising information. The notion that we talked about at the beginning has turned into confusing treatments touted for children with medical deficiencies as solutions for just average little kids.

Be the best child. Basically, the same problem we talked about with enrolling kids in academies outside of school to make them “smarter” than the rest. The drug is another symptom, the most extreme, of course, in the obsession of South Korean parents to give their children the best future in an environment where, paradoxically, fewer and fewer are born.

Image | Dall-E/Xataka

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