By Lois Rogers
Last updated at 7:15 AM on 22nd November 2011
......around 1.2 million Britons are thought to have been born with some kind of disorder of sexual development (DSD) as a result of errors in their genetic code.
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| Disorders: Abnormalities are caused while a baby is growing in the womb, and range from mild genital abnormalities to 'intersex' conditions |
These cause abnormalities while a baby is growing in the womb, and range from mild genital abnormalities to ‘intersex’ conditions such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia — where the baby has female and male physical characteristics such as a womb and a penis.
Overall, DSDs causing ‘ambiguous’ genitalia affect an estimated one in 1,000 people.
Although the use of growth promoting hormones is illegal in the EU and other countries, there may still be a risk in imported meat. Traces of these hormones have also been found in drinking-water supplies in studies by the Environment Agency and Medical Research Council.
‘There is no doubt that male reproductive disorders are increasing, but for some reason it is hard to get people to recognise the fact,’ says Professor Richard Sharpe of the Medical Research Council’s Centre for Reproductive Health at Edinburgh University, who runs a research group looking specifically at men.
‘It is an issue which ought to attract a great deal more attention,’ he says.
Professor Ieuan Hughes of Cambridge University, whose research focuses on abnormal sexual development in humans, says studies show a rise in the problem of undescended testes, where the organs remain within the body cavity of male babies, creating a risk of future infertility.
‘The latest research shows 7 to 8 per cent of babies are affected, and it was half that in the Sixties,’ he says.
But other experts are not convinced there is a rise. ‘It is possible incidence has increased over the past 30 or 40 years, but we don’t know,’ says Professor Faisal Ahmed of Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children.
‘Hormone-disrupting chemicals might be one explanation, but so might the changes in how good we are at defining different conditions.’
Experts agree that the range of conditions is considerable, with many only now being properly identified, as the effects of different genetic abnormalities become fully understood.
DSDs are caused by faults in a baby’s genetic code. Normally girls carry two X chromosomes and boys an X and a Y. DSDs occur when a baby develops an extra X or Y chromosome, or when their body fails to respond to genetic signals to switch development on or off.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2064554/Why-children-born-sex-defects.html
