Pregnancy Signs & Symptoms, Week by Week Pregnancy Guide

All parents want to have healthy children, but sadly there are a lot of different chromosome disorders that could affect the babies. Usually there are 22 chromosome pairs that are known to be autosomes. These could be affected by the disorders.

Down syndrome and disorders of the chromosomes

This is a really common disorder and it affects about 0.5% of the babies. These people have mental disabilities, specific facial features, heart defects or other problems. The good news is that the outlook of the children with the syndrome is now brighter than it was in the past.

Since the children with such abnormalities of the chromosomes have learning difficulties they require special education. With its help they can learn writing and reading skill and they will also be able to participate in different activities with other children.

Trisomies

This chromosomal abnormality is more dangerous than Down syndrome; it is also less common. Trisomy 13 appears once in 16,000 cases and trisomy 18 appears once in every 5,000 cases. These babies usually have mental disabilities and also physical birth defects. Babies usually die before they reach age 1.

It is known regarding the chromosomal abnormalities that the last chromosome pair is the sex chromosome. If these have an abnormality, people could turn out to be infertile. They could also face growth abnormalities and learning and behavioral problems.

Turner syndrome

When it comes to the chromosome abnormalities we also have to think about this syndrome. It appears once in every 2,500 cases. This means that girls are missing an X chromosome or a part of one of the X chromosomes. These girls usually have fertility problems and they don’t go through the changes of puberty.

Normally the girls with this chromosome abnormality are quite short. However if they receive hormone therapy they could grow taller. It is possible for them to be affected by health problems such as kidney or heart problems. Although the affected girls have normal mental abilities, they could have problems with learning.

Triple X

About 0.1% of all girls have this chromosomal disorder. Because of the extra X chromosome, the affected girls are very tall. They don’t have any defects, they have normal intelligence, go through puberty like other girls and they are fertile. Since the girls look normal, the parents usually don’t recognize the abnormality. Parents could find out about the problem as a result of prenatal testing.

Klinefelter syndrome

This is a chromosome disorder that affects only boys. It means that their Y chromosome has two or more X chromosomes. Boys have normal intelligence, but they may have learning problems. In their adulthood these boys have less than normal of the male testosterone hormone and they could be infertile.

As you can see there are a lot of extra chromosome disorders. All of them have different effects, but generally speaking they affect fertility and they make it more difficult for the affected children to learn. They can also be accompanied by physical deformities.