Question on my Height

[JimmeC]

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to ready this. I'm a 21 year old male who is 5'3'' tall and have been so since age 12. Currently, among the adult members of my family, I am the shortest. My mother was about 5'6'' when I was born and my father is 5'9''. My grandfathers were both 6'0'' and my grandmothers were 5'6''-ish. My uncles average out to be around 5'9 and my aunts about 5'6. My male cousins are about the same as my uncles, and my female cousins are similar to my aunts. I do not have any biological siblings to compare myself to. I'm wondering if there's any sort of explanation for this? I understand genetics is a funny thing and perhaps I just drew the "short" end of the straw (excuse the bad pun) but it has been on my mind recently and I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Couple of things that may be important are...

I have asked my doctor this question. My current doctor seemed disinterested in talking about this topic and my former pediatrician, when I was 14, guessed I would end up being around 5'7-5'9 by now.

I only started to drink coffee within the past year and even then I will only have 5 cups or less a month.

I've never had any sort of spinal injury or any other kind of trauma.

I don't do drugs or take any kind of medications.

I'm posting this in "Men's Health" instead of the "Genetics" forum because I feel this section has more viewers and the potential to find information is greater. However, I will graciously move my question to Genetics if the community seems it be more appropriate.

So that's that. I'm curious to see what people can make of this and I'm fully prepared to accept "genetic dud" as an answer. Thanks for reading.

[remar]

That's such a shame your Dr is not willing to do these tests on you. They are probably normal but, I'm sure you would like to know.
Yes, you may still grow a little. You have such a great attitude and it does'nt seem to matter much to you how tall you are. You're so right, all people are different and that's what makes us interesting.

[JimmeC]

Thanks for the replay. I've considered asking my doctor to test me for those things but when I brought it up in my last visit he became agitated and I could tell didn't want to bother. He's not the best doctor in the world I admit and I'd switch if I could, but the other doctors aren't taking new patients at the moment. Oh well.

I have read that men still grow well into their 20's and that's why throughout my teenage years I never gave much thought to how tall I was. But here I am now, 21 and still as tall as I was at 12. I think it's a bit odd. I don't mind all that much to be honest, people are who they are. It can be discouraging sometimes though but I get through it.