Special Report: Great Lengths

While growing up, Annie Harms always loved sports.

Annie Harms, 14 years old
"I run, basketball, track."

She was also very short for her age.

Annie Harms
"At basketball games, people would always point and laugh, think I was a first grader."

Annie was diagnosed with a condition known as "idiopathic short stature." It had been slowing her growth for years.

Mary Harms, Annie's mother
"They told us without treatment she'd probably be only 4 feet 9 inches."

For kids like Annie, there's a new treatment. The FDA has approved the growth hormone, Humatrope for her condition. In the past, synthetic growth hormone, like Humatrope, could only be prescribed for a child with a medical problem. Now, any child with very short stature can be treated.

Dr. David R. Brown, Pediatric endocrinologist
"It still requires us to deal with children who are really significantly small for their age and truly have an abnormal growth velocity."

In our society, height matters. Since 1900, the taller candidate has almost always won the presidency. One recent study says taller employees earn more money than shorter ones. And for a child, the effects of short stature could last a lifetime.

Patty Costa, Human Growth Foundation
"It's for the child so that they grow up to have, you know, somewhat of a normal height. That they don't have to be ridiculed, that they can feel comfortable in what they do."

There are some drawbacks:

• Results vary. Patients could add 1 and a half to 3 inches, or nothing at all.
• Long term side effects are unknown.
• High prescription cost - starting at $20,000 per year. It's unlikely insurance will cover it.

This Stoughton girl's parents and doctors had to battle for insurance coverage, and she was diagnosed as growth hormone deficient.

Karen Pascarelli, Stoughton
"No matter how much proof we would give them, they weren't going to cover this."

Some health care professionals say - slow down

Dr. Laurie Cohen, Children's Hospital
"Once you've told that child they need growth hormone, you've now given that child a disease. You've told the child there's something wrong with them."

Dr. Laurie Cohen at Children's Hospital in Boston says growth hormone treatment shouldn't be a psychological or cosmetic fix.

Dr. Laurie Cohen, Children's Hospital
"Short stature never killed anyone, so we have to be careful of why we're treating the short stature."

One Boston medical ethicist says, if a child isn't growing, doctors should prescribe growth hormone, no matter what.

Dr. Michael Grodin, Boston Medical Center
"The goal is to gain to a minimum amount of height so that they can function in society and they can use the things that everybody else uses, be able to reach something in the kitchen, be able to drive a car, be able to reach the gas pedal."

Annie Harms
"A few of my friends, are a little bit shorter, and they're like - it's your shoes, and no, I'm growing."

For this teen, the treatment has meant new height and new hope.