The X-MEN

I remember how a young woman once messaged my better half . She was worried that her child might inherit a genetic defect refered to as 47 XXY or Klinefelter's syndrome (KS). She knew that I had this genetic anomaly and wanted me to advise her on what it was like to live a life with an extra X. She was actually seriously considering not having a child if she found out that he had KS.

When I was first diagnosed, it was during the course of an infertility test, it was last year and I'd just turned 41. The fertility specialist confirmed that I had azoospermia and mentioned something about being "Klinefelter". I had never heard of it before in my life and so when I got home, I jumped onto google and started to read everything I could find including forums and testimonies.

There was a lot of information out there which I skimmed through, some of the sites were about transexuals, others described symptoms which really seemed scary. So for the uninformed out there the idea of giving birth to a child with KS probably conjures up images of a mutant hairless creature with arms and legs like a spider and an IQ equal to one's house cat.

In reality while there are a list of symptoms or characteristics often seen with KS people, not every person is going to get all of them or any of them for that matter plus like any other diseases, symptoms can range from mild to more severe. The only common symptom is the fact that 47 XXY are infertile.

One of the common symptoms mentionned is that KS people are hairless and rather taller than the average. I have a goatee and while I am taller than my wife I'm certainly no giant at 171 cm. Also levels of testosterone may vary with this syndrome, for my part my levels are within normal range, on the lower end of the scale but within normal range nonetheless.

The strange thing though was that I found myself looking back at my life trying to find things that happened that may fill the 47 XXY mold. They are a few things that I can find during my adolescence where I can draw a line to it, but all in all I am mostly a product of my environment. Had my parents had known that I was KS my life may have been slightly different to a degree but I don't think that it would have changed in any great way.

One of the more worrying aspect of being KS for me is the greater likelyhood of developing some auto imune disease in later life but I try not to think about it too much, after all there are no guarantees in life and I could easily die from something else such as the time I had my motorcycle accident I could have died there and then, but it wasn't to be therefore I should live my life to the fullest.


So what is it like for me ?

I feel that I am less agressive than other males and perhaps more in tune with my feelings and those of others. When there is a party I find myself much more comfortable chatting with the women in the kitchen rather than being with the men talking about cars or blokey things. In a social setting I find people tend to open up more easily to me, perhaps because I appear to be non-threatening to most and because of my caring nature. Having said that I can also have my moods and if pushed past a certain limit people will know. I mean it's not because I am usually a nice person that any one should mistake me for a doormat either.

I find it hard to describe how It feels like exactly to be KS for me, however I like to think of myself as an "X-Man", to me it's not a deficiency but a genetic improvement since I have been given an Extra X which in turns brings to me some of the caring nature of women that many men lack of. It's the best of both worlds basically.