Abstract
Nine girls with X or partial X monosomy and fourteen boys with 47,XXY karyotypes were identified through the consecutive chromosome screening of 40,000 newborns over a ten-year period. The probable infertility of these children emerged as a central concern in annual psychiatric interviews with parents. Parental grief over the anticipated loss of this choice for their child, whether or not openly avowed within the families, influences the development of self-image and self-esteem in the child and, if not appropriately confronted, blocks the acceptance process necessary in the child as preparation for parenthood by means of adoption.
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This study was supported in part by grant 5R01-HD10032 from the U.S. Public Health Service, grant RR-69 from the General Clinical Research Centers Program of the Division of Research Resources, NIH, and the The Genetic Foundation.
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Borelli, J.B., Bender, B.G., Puck, M.H. et al. The meaning of early knowledge of a child's infertility in familes with 47,XXY and 45,X children. Child Psych Hum Dev 14, 215–222 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00706035
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00706035