Act Your Age (House)

House (TV series) episode
episode_name = Act Your Age
episode_no = HOU-319
airdate = April 17, 2007
writer = Sara Hess
director = Daniel Sackheim
guest_star = Erich Anderson as Deran; Bailee Madison as Lucy; Slade Pearce as Jasper; Carla Gallo as Janie; Joel David Moore as Eddie


season = 3
diagnosis = Precocious puberty due to externally applied testosterone

"Act Your Age" is the nineteenth episode of the third season of "House" and the sixty-fifth episode overall.

Plot

The episode starts with a boy whose nose is bleeding very hard from getting into a fight. While his father and teacher discuss his aggressive behavior, his six-year-old sister has a heart attack. Over the course of the episode she develops more symptoms that are usually only exhibited by elderly people. Exploring the patient's house, they find a bloody T-shirt stuffed into a heating vent. Suspecting child abuse at first, the team runs tests and finds that the girl has been menstruating at the age of six. Shallow cuts around the genital area found in a previous exam were attributed to her trying to remove pubic hair with her father's razor. House and his team are baffled, but the breakthrough comes when the brother, who is eight, goes into a rage when Chase acts affectionately towards Cameron on whom the boy had a crush. It turns out that both children have been affected by their father's sexual-enhancement cream, which he's been using to "keep up" with his much younger girlfriend, and are going through puberty early.

Cultural references

The television show that House is watching is "TNA Lockdown 2006", a yearly PPV by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling professional wrestling promotion. The match shown on the screen was Christian Cage vs. Abyss in a Six Sides of Steel Match.

External links

* [http://www.housemd-guide.com/season3/319actyourage.php/ Season 3 #319 - "House" episode synopsis]
* [http://www.fox.com/house/ FOX.com - "House" official site]
* [http://televisionwithoutpity.com/show.cgi?show=151/ Television Without Pity - "House" recaps]
* [http://epguides.com/House/ House Episode Guide at epguides.com]
* [http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/house/100213/ TVGuide's Page: Full list of House Episodes]
* [http://politedissent.com/archives/1628 Medical review of "Act Your Age"]