What is Turner Syndrome?

This type of genetic disorder affects mostly girls 1 in every 2500 women. Although no proper reason behind the occurrence of Turner syndrome has been found out yet, commonly a problem has to do with girl's chromosomes.

Symptoms of Turner Syndrome

1. Girls suffering from Turner syndrome have to face other health problems such as high blood pressure, kidney problems, overweight, heart problems, and difficulties in hearing, thyroid problems and diabetes.
2. Some girls also suffer from learning difficulties, especially in math and some have problems to acquire normal skills such as reading a map or visual organization.
3. Lack of sexual development, short stature, webbed neck, neck with a low hairline, drooping eyelids, awkwardly shaped ears, an abnormal bone development especially near the elbows, an extra number of moles than usual and a problem of edema are some of the common symptoms found in girls having Turner syndrome.

Diagnosis/Tests

1. The diagnosis of Turner syndrome is made at the time of the birth or when the girls are going through a phase of puberty.
2. If the doctor suspects a girl child of having this syndrome, he may recommend karyotype test to find the genetic disorder in the child.
3. In case the karyotype blood test establishes that the girl is having Turner syndrome, the doctors may further recommend certain tests to find out if she is having another problem associated with this syndrome such as blood sugar, blood pressure, kidney, thyroid and more.

Treatment

1. No specific cure has been developed yet for this syndrome.
2. However, several treatments have been developed that can ease the problems such girls have to face during their growing up years.
3. Growth hormone treatment is recommended to influence the development of height and reach it to a normal level.
4. Estrogen replacement treatment helps the girls to develop physically after the puberty such as development in breasts and regular menstrual periods.
5. To get maximum benefits of this treatment it should start when the girl reaches 12 or 3 years of age.

Note: Nowadays, techniques like vitro fertilization help a woman with Turner syndrome become pregnant and deliver a normal child.