Somewhere, a 20- year- old has the bones of a child, somewhere, a 30- year- old woman looks like a teen and somewhere, a 36- year- old has a heart condition which forces her to wear IV bags constantly in order to take regular medications. All the above cases are happening to women all over the world, especially in countries where medical facilities and equipment are not readily available. However, medicine has advanced a lot in the past ten years and women are slowly gaining triumph over several kinds of syndromes. Nowadays, we are able to detect the symptoms of diseases easily and find the right cures for it. One such disease is Turner’s syndrome which only happens to women.
Turner syndrome is a condition that affects only females when one of the X chromosomes (sex chromosomes) is missing or partially missing. Turner syndrome can cause a variety of medical and developmental problems, including short height, failure of the ovaries to develop, and heart defects. Turner syndrome can be diagnosed before birth (prenatally), during infancy or in early childhood.
Symptoms include broad chest with widely spaced nipples, fingernails, and toenails that are narrow and turned upward, swelling of the hands and feet, slightly smaller than average height at birth, slowed growth, short fingers, and toes, failure to begin sexual changes expected during puberty, sexual development that “stalls” during teenage years, early end to menstrual cycles not due to pregnancy, and for most women with Turner syndrome, they are unable to conceive a child without fertility treatment.
Turner’s syndrome also causes heart and kidney problems, hearing loss, high blood pressure, learning disabilities, and mental health issues.
Lea Ann Matura, a professor of Nursing at Northeastern University’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences, had a goal to develop less obtrusive interventions—even the possibility of new drugs—in an effort to prolong women’s lives and ease their symptoms without compromising with their mental health by having them wear IV bags or face problems in conceiving a child.
One of the most successful therapies for Turner’s syndrome has been Estrogen Therapy (ERT). ERT can help start the secondary sexual development that normally begins at puberty (around age 12). This includes breast development and the development of wider hips. Health care providers may prescribe a combination of estrogen and progesterone to girls who haven’t started menstruating by the age of 15. ERT also provides protection against bone loss.
So, therefore, it can be concluded by stating the fact that nowadays women are facing many health issues due to Turner’s syndrome which often goes unnoticed. Even though medicine has advanced a lot, girls and women of varying ages end up dying at a young age only because of a lack of awareness of this disease and the availability of the right cure at the right time.
Shivangi Sinha
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