Woman who's 3-foot-tall explains why she can’t grow bigger than an eight-year-old

A 23-year-old woman who is three foot and 10 inches tall has explained why she can't grow bigger than an eight-year-old.

Listen to Shauna Rae talk about how early her health issues had an impact on her height:

Shauna has been appearing in the TLC documentary I Am Shauna Rae as she navigates life in her twenties and tries to get the rest of the world to treat her like an adult.

She visited Dr Creek at Stony Brook University Hospital in New York to check-up on her health explained how she was diagnosed with cancerous tumour when she was just a baby.

"I was born normal - at six months, they noticed that I had a tumour, and my family doctor told us that it was a malignant glioma at stage four and that I needed to get into immediate surgery," Shauna said.

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"After the surgery, I was told that the tumour was gone, but I could have a physical or a mental impairment.

"And then at five years old - I wasn't growing, and I was significantly shorter than everyone else.

"My endocrinologist said that my pituitary gland was kind of dormant, and my condition is a form of dwarfism.

"It's classified as pituitary dwarfism which just means proportional dwarfism, but due to medical issues, from my understanding, most other forms of dwarfism are genetic."

Patricia Schrankel, her mother said: "Shauna's pituitary gland was dormant, that's when the doctors put her on growth hormones.

"Shauna was on and off growth hormones for years but it was really hard for her because having shot physically hurt her so much.

"And then probably at 15, we saw another doctor. He got her on a different kind of growth hormone. She got a couple more inches, but she was already in puberty at that point, which shut off time."

TLC

Shauna was also concerned about her fertility so asked the doctor if she could be a mother.

Dr Creek informed her of a 'high-risk situation' regarding her fertility and said: "If it's physically possible, and I think that there are a few factors to take into account.

"With smaller body size, but not a genetic form of dwarfism, it logically means that the baby that Shauna would carry would be an average-sized child."

TLC

Shauna was experiencing headaches, and nausea, and had grown sensitivity to light and sound, which were 'classic migraine' symptoms according to her doctor.

Dr Creek suggested another MRI as a follow-up procedure on her health as they fear that cancer might resurface at some point in time and was recommended to consult a neurologist for a deep diagnosis.

Later, Dr Creek advised her to get established with an obstetrician-gynaecologist who can dig into details if she can safely carry a child in the future.

She hailed Shauna for acceptance of her rare medical condition and said: "I think for a 22-year-old with a rare medical condition that can't really be hidden from the world, she's done a pretty remarkable job of coming to terms with herself and accepting where she is.

"And I think she's gracefully moving forward in life with the limitations that she has. So she's a wonderful girl. She's a wonderful woman. Maybe I should say she's a wonderful woman."