Turner Syndrome - Signs and Symptoms

Signs and Symptoms

Common symptoms of Turner syndrome include:

  • Short stature
  • Lymphedema (swelling) of the hands and feet
  • Broad chest (shield chest) and widely spaced nipples
  • Low hairline
  • Low-set ears
  • Reproductive sterility
  • Rudimentary ovaries gonadal streak (underdeveloped gonadal structures that later become fibrosed)
  • Amenorrhoea, or the absence of a menstrual period
  • Increased weight, obesity
  • Shield shaped thorax of heart
  • Shortened metacarpal IV
  • Small fingernails
  • Characteristic facial features
  • Webbed neck from cystic hygroma in infancy
  • Coarctation of the aorta
  • Bicuspid aortic valve
  • Poor breast development
  • Horseshoe kidney
  • Visual impairments sclera, cornea, glaucoma, etc.
  • Ear infections and hearing loss
  • High waist-to-hip ratio (the hips are not much bigger than the waist)
  • Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD (problems with concentration, memory, attention with hyperactivity seen mostly in childhood and adolescence)
  • Nonverbal Learning Disability (problems with math, social skills and spatial relations)

Other features may include a small lower jaw (micrognathia), cubitus valgus (turned-in elbows), soft upturned nails, palmar crease, and drooping eyelids. Less common are pigmented moles, hearing loss, and a high-arch palate (narrow maxilla). Turner syndrome manifests itself differently in each female affected by the condition, and no two individuals will share the same features.

Read more about this topic:  Turner Syndrome

Famous quotes containing the words signs and/or symptoms:

    Young children scare easily—a tough tone, a sharp reprimand, an exasperated glance, a peeved scowl will do it. Little signs of rejection—you don’t have to hit young children to hurt them—cut very deeply.
    James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)

    For anyone addicted to reading commonplace books ... finding a good new one is much like enduring a familiar recurrence of malaria, with fever, fits of shaking, strange dreams. Unlike a truly paludismic ordeal, however, the symptoms felt while savoring a collection of one man’s pet quotations are voluptuously enjoyable ...
    M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)