Children at risk of gender change

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) causes many children to be born with disorders of the gonads, sex change or old age.

Mistress into a boy

(Photo: mybaby)

Dr. Nguyen Thi Hoan, Head of Endocrinology - Metabolism - Genetics, National Hospital of Pediatrics said, CAH is a congenital disease related to the hormones of the adrenal glands.

Children with CAH mean an imbalance of adrenal hormone, lack of Cortisol (a hormone that maintains sugar levels, helps the body fight stress, boosts immunity) and lacks Aldosterol (a type of salt metabolism hormone, ensure stability of blood volume and blood pressure, but excess testosterone Test (a type of male sex hormone that helps develop male sexual characteristics) causes male biochemistry sex outside.

Young boys soon found male genitalia larger than normal and darkened."There are even girls who were only born three hours, the genitals have been turned into boys. This has caused their parents to mistakenly put the names of boys" , TS. Complete giving evidence.

To the Central Children Hospital from Hai Phong, a little girl (asking for anonymity) is now 14 years old. This girl was found to have CAH when her body had 90% female and 10% male (the penis turned into clitoris but did not have testicles). When she was 6 years old, the girl was underwent two operations of clitoris.

However, there are also cases of late detection that are difficult to treat to return the right sex. That is the case of little girl N. (born in 1991 in Ha Tay). Although there is a daughter's face, but the baby N. grows furry edges, the area is shaped like a boy. That reason makes this girl always be shy, shy and not confident when communicating with people around her.

Early surgery and lifelong medication are needed

What is the probability of getting sick?

Dr. Vu Chi Dung, Deputy Head of Endocrinology - Metabolism - Genetics, National Hospital of Pediatrics said: Only one in 14,000 people has CAH.If a couple has one or more children with the disease while the couple is not sick, the probability of having children with CAH will be one quarter.If a person is ill with a normal person, the likelihood of their children having CAH is very low, about one percent.If two people with CAH get married, all their children will have CAH.

For girls with CAH, early detection is required to return sex. Dr. Hoan advised, if the child reaches adulthood, it is very difficult to conduct surgery because in the bill about our country still allow sex change.

In addition, surgery should be performed before the child reaches preschool age to avoid psychological trauma and inferiority towards everyone. Therefore, it is best to return sex surgery to children at 4-12 months of age.

"The girls who suffer from CAH if they are operated on and treated in time will return to normal life, even if they can get married and give birth to children", Dr. Hoan said. However, how to detect early disease is still a difficult question for the medical industry. Because CAH is an uncommon disease, the district and provincial hospitals cannot afford to detect the disease early (?!?).

Appeared among children with CAH at the Central Children's Hospital, boy Nguyen Van Th. (born in 1994 in Hoai Duc - Ha Tay) looks like an old man with wrinkled and gray skin. Embracing the baby in her heart, Ms. Binh (Th's mother) cried and said: "How much do I eat but with my body growing like an old person? My mind is slow, although I am 12 years old but I just went to grade 3. My family was so poor that I could not afford medicine for my children, and once I ran out of medication, I had a blood pressure drop and continued vomiting . "

Dr. Hoan said: In boys, they suffer from CAH closer to adulthood earlier than usual. Some of the right growth phenomena must appear when a young child does not happen. Therefore, the height of patients with this disease is limited when growing up.

Dr. Complete make recommendations. CAH is a lifelong disease, there is no cure for it. Unable to replace enzymes and brain surgery or adrenal gland surgery cannot help either.

However, it is possible to replace deficient hormones by taking medications. This medication needs to be taken for life, even when the baby is perfectly healthy. If you have CAH without dieting: girls with CAH often need surgery to return the genitals to normal shape and size. And boys do not need.

Good news for families with CAH patients at this conference, Australia's CLAN (Making Friends with CAH) will continue to work with the Central Pediatric Hospital doctors and the CAH Support Group to find out Long-term, inexpensive solutions for families to buy the necessary medicines for their children.

About 400 Vietnamese children have congenital adrenal hyperplasia

The above figure was presented at the congenital adrenal hyperplasia group conference held by the Central Children 's Hospital in collaboration with Clan organization (Australia) for two days (5 and 6-6) in Hanoi.Many CAH patients are also invited to attend the conference.

With the above figure, Vietnam is considered one of the countries with the highest rate of people suffering from congenital adrenal hyperplasia in the world.This is an uncommon disease, only 1 / 14,000.