If you love reading medical journals or articles, you have probably come across the words turner syndrome at some point.
Turner syndrome is a rare chromosomal condition that alters development in females. Females with Turner syndrome tend to be shorter than their peers are and cannot conceive a child because they lack the ovarian function. It is has been approximated to affect one in every 2000-2500 female births. Researchers are yet to determine the genes on the X chromosome responsible for most signs and symptoms of the condition.
However, they have identified a gene called SHOX, which is essential for bone growth and development. Missing a copy of this gene means there is a possibility of skeletal abnormalities and short stature in females with Turner syndrome.
How does Turner syndrome come about?
To understand how you can treat Turner syndrome, you have to understand what causes it. First, you should know that most cases are not hereditary. It is rare for you to pass turner syndrome to the next generation. It occurs due to chromosomal abnormalities.
Typically, females have two X chromosomes, but those with Turner syndrome have only one X chromosome, or one part of the X chromosome is missing.
No one should tell you that something a girl’s parent did or never did caused turner syndrome. The condition is a random mistake in cell division during formation of the parent’s reproductive cells.
What are the common signs and symptoms of Turner syndrome?
Most females with Turner syndrome and fail to get treatment are shorter than the average height like their peers. They have an average height 4 feet 7 inches. They also have other related physical characteristics. However, Turner syndrome affects each somehow differently. If you have Turner syndrome, your prenatal ultrasound might show:
- Heart or kidney abnormalities
- Some fluid collection on the back of the victim’s neck
- Signs or symptoms at birth or during infancy
- Delayed growth
- High-arched palate
- Less developed fingernails and toenails
- Below average size after birth
- Low-set, prominent ears
- Receding or small chin
- Multiple moles
- Rounded spine
- Scoliosis
- Low hairline at the back
- A webbed neck
- Flat feet
- Droopy eyelids
- Epicanthic folds
- Strabismus
Those females with Turner syndrome become infertile because their ovaries do not have eggs. However, if you have Turner syndrome, you can still bear children by using in vitro fertilization and donated eggs. One of the effects of Turner syndrome is cardiovascular damage, which is the leading cause of death among people with the condition. Other effects associated with Turner syndrome are kidney defects, high blood pressure, obesity, hearing loss, diabetes, and thyroid disease.
How is Turner syndrome diagnosed?
If you or your girl has Turner syndrome, mostly diagnosis will happen after birth or by the time; you expect them to go through puberty. If a doctor notices some signs of Turner syndrome in a girl, he or she will request for a particular blood test known as a karyotype. Karyotype test counts the chromosomes number and can identify those shaped abnormally or those with missing parts.
For some women, diagnosis can come in adulthood because of early menopause or premature ovarian failure.
What are the effects of Turner Syndrome?
If you have Turner syndrome and receive proper medical care, you should be able to live a productive and full life. However, you are more susceptible to kidney problems, heart problems, fertility problems, or thyroid problems.
Sometimes experts can use therapy to help you on how to deal with esteem and psychological burden that comes with Turner syndrome and help you live with it without feeling different from other people. Most kids with this condition have poor communication skills so psychological support can be beneficial.
How you treat Turner syndrome
Now that you understand what Turner syndrome is, its symptoms and what causes it, in case you spot it you should learn how to manage it. Because Turner syndrome is a chromosomal condition, it does not have a cure. However, some treatments can help:
Human Growth hormone for Turner syndrome
Food and Drug Administration approved the use of human growth hormones to treat Turner syndrome in 1996. The hormones help enhance growth progress and maybe the final adult height.
How does HGH work?
Naturally, growth hormones are produced by the pituitary gland in the brain. This hormone then stimulates the liver to produce another growth hormone which is very important in growth. These two hormones will stimulate the growth of cells in the tissue and organs of a person. It is responsible for bone growth and maturation which determines your height and general physical features.
So, when HGH is administered to a child with Turner syndrome, their growth is stimulated. Why? Because HGH is a synthetic version of the growth hormone produced by the body. Growth hormone therapy will then correct some of the physical signs that children with Turner syndrome exhibit; especially height.
When administered over a period of time, your child’s bone and overall skeletal development will be noticeable.
Specialists can use this therapy method alone or with other HGH for Sale treatment methods. Using growth hormone during childhood can enhance growth and help a kid with Turner syndrome reach standard adult height. If growth hormone therapy is done early, a person with Turner syndrome height might increase by four inches, on average. Additionally, growth hormone therapy can stimulate your sexual maturation, enhance the ability to pay attention, plan, and assess spatial and visual relationships.
Turner syndrome treatment mostly involves a specialized team that will help you to manage the symptoms of the condition in the most appropriate way. If you or your child is affected, you receive health care from pediatric endocrinologists who have specialized in childhood conditions that result from metabolism and abnormal hormones. Injecting growth hormone helps improve the short stature in girls. Growth hormone therapy should start in early childhood.
How do you receive growth hormone therapy?
Girls get growth hormone through injections several times a week. Health specialists will monitor the growth of the person with Turner syndrome closely to determine the best dosage.
Use of human growth hormone in Turner Syndrome treatment is an effective and safe method to reverse the signs of the condition. Studies have shown that if you get growth hormone therapy, you will grow eight inches taller compared to those who do not receive growth hormone.
Estrogen replacement therapy
It helps females develop the physical characteristics of puberty including menstrual periods and breast development. The treatment will mostly start if a girl is 12-13. The specialist initiates estrogen replacement therapy to allow sexual characteristics such as breast tissue to develop. The benefits of progesterone and estrogen begin to show years later where a girl can get her periods, maintain a healthy womb, and prevent osteoporosis.
If you were not aware, the ovaries release estrogen, which is crucial for development and maintenance of bone structure and functional tissue.
Additionally, cardiac surgery might be significant if you want to correct heart defects that result from Turner syndrome.
If treatment starts early and maintained, it is possible for victims to achieve standard height. Don’t allow your child to suffer the full effects of Turner syndrome when you can mitigate it with some of the best treatments available.