Introduction to Turner Syndrome

Introduction to Turner Syndrome

What Is Turner Syndrome?

   Turner Syndrome is a chromosomal disorder that is only found in females, and it is a very rare disorder effecting only 1 in 2,000 females. It is caused by the female missing either part of an X chromosome or an entire X chromosome. 
  Girls with Turner's are typically short (the average untreated height is 4 ft. 7 in.), are infertile due to underdeveloped ovaries, have difficulty with spatial tasks, and have a greater risk of developing Type II Diabetes and Hypothyroidism.

My experience with Turner Syndrome

   I am a nineteen year old college freshman, and my major is nursing. I am 4 ft. 10 in. tall, and will not be able to have children. I also have a mitral valve murmur, which is a heart murmur common among girls with Turners. Basically, your heart has 4 "rooms"; the right and left atria and ventricles. There are also "doors" to these "rooms", called valves. These valves open and close to prevent blood from flowing into one of the "rooms" it's not supposed to go into. The Mitral, or Bicuspid, valve separates the left ventricle and atria. My Bicuspid valve does not close all of the way when my heart contracts, so some of the blood pumping through my heart flows back into the left atria from my left ventricle when my heart contracts. 
   I was diagnosed with Turner's when I was two years old. I began taking growth hormone when I was two and a half, and I took an injection of it every night until I was fifteen. Ovaries produce estrogen and progesterone (the main female hormones responsible for breast development and menstrual cycles), but my ovaries do not produce those hormones, so I began taking hormone replacements when I was thirteen as well. 
    Different things have bothered me about having Turner's throughout my life. When I was younger (around 5-10 years old), it was the shot of growth hormone that bothered me. It hurt. Plus, I didn't think it was fair that my sister, who is two years younger than me, didn't have to have a shot. Then, once I got older and started middle school, I started to realize that I was different. That not only did my sister not have to take a shot, but nobody else I knew had to. I think I connected the shot with my feeling of being different, and the shot began to represent my differences. I remember some nights it would really hit my when I had to take the shot, and I would just start crying to my mom, saying things like, "I don't want to take the shot! Nobody else has to! Why am I different, why do I have to take it?" It was also around this time that I found out I would not be able to have kids, and began taking two hormones. This also made me feel different, because all the other girls didn't have to take pills to grow boobs or have their periods, and they would all be able to have kids when they wanted to. 
    I stopped the growth hormone half way through my Freshman year of high school, and that helped. I didn't have that reminder that I was different every night. I also started to mature, and realize that even though having to take a shot every night made me different, it also made me stronger. I also realized that a lot of women can't have kids, not just girls with Turner's, and that there were plenty of other options for me, like adoption. However, my infertility is now the hardest part of Turner's for me to deal with.