rebis
05-17-05, 01:22 PM
Greetings everyone.
I have just recently joined and am both eager to become involved and further my education into my own situation as well learn about others' situations.
I'll preface my current question, though, with a bit of background:
I am convinced due to the overwhelming medical evidence and personal history as well as feelings and internal cues that I'm an XXY male.
I am a poster child for all of the traits, including having been diagnosed with a childhood cancer (acute lymphocytic leukemia) that has a noted higher propesity for XXY males. I didn't begin puberty until 18, am 6'3" with long limbs, have gynecomastia, early language development issues, social passivity, underdeveloped genitalia, low sex drive, etc.
Four years ago, my (then) wife and I went through infertility treatment to attempt conceiving. At the time I was first tested, my count was 0.6m/ML (range being 20m-220m for 'normal').
I was prescribed an "empirical therapy" of 50mg/day Clomid treatment for six months, and on top of opening a whole pandora's box of strange physiological shifts (sex drive spike, emotional outbursts, feeling out of sorts about a number of shifts in my body) raised my count up to 24m/ml.
The resulting in-vitro attempt self-terminated at 12 weeks due to likely "chromosomal errors" in development which would cause the fetus development to halt.
At no point during this process did anyone raise the issue of XXY or perform a karyotype to determine if there was anything to be concerned about.
On a fluke occurance, while researching some issues relating to the small number of us Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia patients who've made it to adulthood (recent trends allow for high survivabilty rates for kids with ALL, but at the time of my diagnosis, it was a 10% survival rate), I found information on 47XXY/Klinefelters.
The information caused me to have a cascading wave of self-aware discoveries and realizations, putting all of my seemingly random medical/development issues into context and explaining so much about my own very fluid gender ID (I feel very much 50/50 about my gender ID and always have).
I tried to have my suspicions validated by meeting with a Endocrinologist, an 82-year-old gentleman with some very firm beliefs on the subject of XXY.
While all of my traits were in line, he refused to order any conclusive testing because my testosterone levels were at the bottom-end range for normal and I was capable of producing any sperm whatsoever. He cited as his source a 20yr-old text showing that 47XXY were incapable of producing any sperm at all.
I have since (and even then) knew from reading the various 47XXY resources out there that men in this group can produce, but of the ones who do, are only able to do so in small amounts (like my situation).
I am now stuck in medical limbo because I need to know for sure, one way or the other, if am truly am 47XXY or not (for personal, emotional and medical reasons).
My glitch is that I'm currently self-employed without insurance, so I have been trying to find places on the internet that can perform self-pay karyotypes.
If anyone has seen any info that might help, I would be greatly appreciative.
I have other thoughts and feedbacks to share on these subjects, but I wanted to start here.
Thanks, everyone.
I have just recently joined and am both eager to become involved and further my education into my own situation as well learn about others' situations.
I'll preface my current question, though, with a bit of background:
I am convinced due to the overwhelming medical evidence and personal history as well as feelings and internal cues that I'm an XXY male.
I am a poster child for all of the traits, including having been diagnosed with a childhood cancer (acute lymphocytic leukemia) that has a noted higher propesity for XXY males. I didn't begin puberty until 18, am 6'3" with long limbs, have gynecomastia, early language development issues, social passivity, underdeveloped genitalia, low sex drive, etc.
Four years ago, my (then) wife and I went through infertility treatment to attempt conceiving. At the time I was first tested, my count was 0.6m/ML (range being 20m-220m for 'normal').
I was prescribed an "empirical therapy" of 50mg/day Clomid treatment for six months, and on top of opening a whole pandora's box of strange physiological shifts (sex drive spike, emotional outbursts, feeling out of sorts about a number of shifts in my body) raised my count up to 24m/ml.
The resulting in-vitro attempt self-terminated at 12 weeks due to likely "chromosomal errors" in development which would cause the fetus development to halt.
At no point during this process did anyone raise the issue of XXY or perform a karyotype to determine if there was anything to be concerned about.
On a fluke occurance, while researching some issues relating to the small number of us Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia patients who've made it to adulthood (recent trends allow for high survivabilty rates for kids with ALL, but at the time of my diagnosis, it was a 10% survival rate), I found information on 47XXY/Klinefelters.
The information caused me to have a cascading wave of self-aware discoveries and realizations, putting all of my seemingly random medical/development issues into context and explaining so much about my own very fluid gender ID (I feel very much 50/50 about my gender ID and always have).
I tried to have my suspicions validated by meeting with a Endocrinologist, an 82-year-old gentleman with some very firm beliefs on the subject of XXY.
While all of my traits were in line, he refused to order any conclusive testing because my testosterone levels were at the bottom-end range for normal and I was capable of producing any sperm whatsoever. He cited as his source a 20yr-old text showing that 47XXY were incapable of producing any sperm at all.
I have since (and even then) knew from reading the various 47XXY resources out there that men in this group can produce, but of the ones who do, are only able to do so in small amounts (like my situation).
I am now stuck in medical limbo because I need to know for sure, one way or the other, if am truly am 47XXY or not (for personal, emotional and medical reasons).
My glitch is that I'm currently self-employed without insurance, so I have been trying to find places on the internet that can perform self-pay karyotypes.
If anyone has seen any info that might help, I would be greatly appreciative.
I have other thoughts and feedbacks to share on these subjects, but I wanted to start here.
Thanks, everyone.