In Chapter 2, after reading the section about abnormal chromosomes, I decided to do some more research on the subject. I delved further into the Klinefelter's syndrome, which is a disorder that was listed on page 47 of our textbook. This is a syndrome that can happen to male infants that are born with an extra X chromosome. Apparently it is somewhat common, occurring one in every 500 births.
Even though male infants are born with this disorder, most of the symptoms do not show up until puberty begins. The main characteristics of Klinefelter's syndrome are being tall with long arms and legs, small testicles, below-normal intelligence, and passivity. In addition, usually when boys reach puberty they develop facial hair, but in boys with this disorder, facial hair is often sparse. They also might have a condition called gynecomastia, in which their breasts become enlarged.
Many boys have reading / language problems and poor organizational skills. They also fail to consider consequences or outcomes of their behavior based on previous mistakes, which can lead them into trouble or bad situations.
There are some very serious complications with this syndrome, such as infertility, as well as, being more prone to diabetes mellitus, chronic lung disease, varicose veins, hypothyroidism, and breast cancer compared with men that do not have this disorder.
Not only is an extra X chromosome an issue, but some males can have up to 5 X chromosomes along with their Y chromosome. It seems the more they have, the more severe symptoms they experience, such as mental retardation and physical abnormalities. It has been found that each additional X chromosome can lower their IQ by about 15 points, which, in turn mainly affects their language skills.
Language and speech therapy can help boys with this disorder and some men take testosterone supplements, for life, to stimulate a more masculine appearance.
Wow, thanks for the extra information on this disease. It's good to know for me, because I have a 5 year old son. I wondered why they didn't divulge more information on the diseases in the book, so it's nice that you did a little extra searching. To me, it sounds like a pretty serious disease and something that can occur without you even knowing until it hits in puberty. 1 in 500 births is pretty common, at least more so than Down Syndrome, which is something people talk more about and is more known. Thanks for sharing!
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Wow i did not know about this syndrome either this was very interesting to read about when reading the chapter this week. I loved the little bit you discovered about this syndrome. This is a disease that it not often talked about and was very interesting to me as well.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing more about this disease! It is not one that you hear about often, and for how common it is? its amazing. I thought the paragraph about the chromosomes was interesting. It seems crazy to me how having extra chromosomes can lower a persons IQ by 15 points. Ive never known that before!
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