Why are men more susceptible to color blindness than women?

What is color blindness

When even one visual pigment is missing in the retina, a person is able to distinguish only two shades. Given the statistics, this disease mainly affects men. Female color blindness is very rare.

Basically, this pathology is diagnosed as abnormal trichromacy. Usually the disease passes from parents to children. Distant relatives do not genetically transmit this pathology. Women very rarely encounter this disease. Mostly men face it. The disease has two forms: partial and complete. Pathology is diagnosed by the following types:

• achromatopsia (full form);
• deuteranomaly;
• tritanopia;
• protanopia.

It is worth noting that with a partial form of the disease, it is still possible to lead a normal life. The complete lack of color distinction makes a person's life limited.

Features of female disease

Colorblind women are almost as color blind as men. In some cases, we are talking only about the difficulty of distinguishing certain shades of purple. In others, the problem is much more serious; the patient cannot normally distinguish between green and red.

There is no single drug available to treat colorblindness. Vision can be corrected only with the help of special lenses and glasses. Mostly high-quality optics are produced by American companies.

In recent years, research has been conducted on the feasibility of introducing missing genes directly into the retina. Perhaps in the near future colorblind people will be able to get rid of the disease with the help of a course of injections.

Causes of color blindness

The main reason for the development of this pathology is the linkage of X chromosomes with a defective, incorrect gene. Therefore, color blindness is inherited. To determine other causes of the disease, it is necessary to undergo a thorough examination. An acquired form of color blindness occurs very rarely in medical practice. The disease occurs against the background of various pathologies of the optic nerve. In some cases, it can be caused by other diseases.

It is worth noting that the aging process can also influence the development of color blindness. The organs of vision often suffer due to such changes. Age-related changes negatively affect the condition of the retina. Most ophthalmological diseases appear precisely with the aging of the body. This also affects color perception. A colorblind girl at a young age is extremely rare.

Why are there no colorblind women?

Impaired functionality of the visual organs can be congenital or acquired. Acquired diseases arise due to mechanical damage, pathological changes, and brain injuries. Congenital color blindness occurs as a result of a genetic predisposition.

A woman suffers from color blindness only when two chromosomes are damaged. When one X chromosome is damaged, the second one compensates for the damage. When two are affected, color blindness develops. There are very few such cases. For this reason, girls practically do not encounter this pathology. It is worth noting that women can be carriers of pathology and pass it on to their children. The disease is not accompanied by other disorders in the body. Despite this, a person for this reason will not be able to develop in certain professions. Therefore, it is important to detect this pathology in a timely manner.

Do women suffer from color blindness?

Colorblindness may appear partially. At the same time, a person perceives colors inaccurately and not as they are. It depends on which 3 primary colors the affected person perceives incorrectly. Considering the difference in genetics between men and women, the latter encounter pathology very rarely, especially with the congenital form of the disease.

Despite the fact that girls practically do not suffer from color blindness, they can be carriers of it. From the genetic side, this poses a potential danger to direct heirs. In the body of men there is a pair of chromosomes XY, and in women - XX. When a pathological gene affects one X in women, the second one compensates for the loss. Naturally, such compensation does not occur in men, so they mainly suffer from this disease. It is important to consider that if there is a genetic predisposition, it is important to diagnose color blindness in a child in a timely manner. This could affect his adult life.

“They told my mother that I would only live until I was 18”: the story of a Yekaterinburg resident with hemophilia

When asked what you know about hemophilia, the most popular and, most likely, only answer will be that the heir to the imperial throne, Alexei Romanov, suffered from it.

According to information from the Sverdlovsk organization of the All-Russian Hemophilia Society, there are about 20 thousand people living with this disease in Russia, and almost 300 people in our region. One of them is the head of the organization, Rifat Zainutdinov. We met with him on the eve of World Hemophilia Day, which is celebrated on April 17.

“I was born with bruises on my body,” says Rifat Ravilievich. — Within a year or two, bleeding began and the hospital diagnosed him with hemophilia.

This is a rare hereditary disease associated with a blood clotting disorder. Hemorrhages occur in the joints, muscles and internal organs; they may be spontaneous or may be provoked by injury or surgery. Without the necessary treatment, a person can die from hemorrhage in the brain or other vital organs, even with a minor injury.

When Rifat was three years old, the family moved from the Perm village to Sverdlovsk. He was an active child, ran, played football and hockey, fought, went swimming and, as a result, was often hospitalized. The admonitions of my mother and doctors did not help.

“With hemophilia, a bruise can grow to enormous sizes, so I recently hit myself with a crutch, stumbled, my whole leg was swollen,” Rifat Ravilyevich shows his ankle. - When cuts occur, the blood stops for a very long time.

When we didn’t have the drug, the coagulation factor, blood could drip for a day, two, three. The pain was such that you were climbing the walls. When I was a child, I would run around, play enough football and hockey, and in the evening I would scream in pain.

Mom calls an ambulance.

Rifat was twice on the verge of life and death. The first time was after a fight (he was severely beaten), the second time was when he had an accident in 1993. On the highway, another car crashed into the car in which he was riding as a passenger.

With broken legs and severe bleeding, he was taken to Revda hospital. Friends, knowing that blood would be needed, surrounded the building and wanted to become donors.

The head doctor asked me to tell the guys to leave, times were difficult, the doctors were simply afraid of such a crowd at the hospital.

“I called my closest friend and said that everything was fine, let them go to Pervouralsk to the blood transfusion station or to Yekaterinburg. And with my childhood friend Rafail, we actually became brothers; he, like me, had the 4th positive blood group, and we had, one might say, a direct transfusion,” recalls Rifat Ravilyevich.

For four years after that accident he was in a wheelchair. Then he went to Moscow for an operation, and there he was raised to his feet, now Zainutdinov walks with the help of crutches, drives a car, and his first car after the operation was given to him by his friends.

“I have a friend, a businessman, he stirred up all my guys, saying that Rifat will sit at home, let’s raise money and buy him a car. And then somehow they arrive, shouting under the windows: “Come out!” I go out, there is a white car at the entrance, a table is set, a cut glass, keys in it. I drank a glass and just burst into tears. I wanted to cry because I had such friends. I was lucky with them.

Rifat Zainutdinov is 55 years old, he has a son and a daughter. In Soviet times, it was believed that he would not be able to live to that age:

“For our eighteenth birthday, all our friends and relatives gathered together. I remember my mother prepared a cake and began to cry. He says: “Son, they said that you would live to be 18 years old - 21 years old, but you have already turned 18. Then I became 21, 23, 25... Life goes on.

It continues largely thanks to the drug “Octanate” - this is a human blood clotting factor, which patients with hemophilia are administered when bleeding occurs. One package costs 5,500 rubles, Rifat needs 40 per month. But, fortunately, hemophilia patients receive Octanate for free.

“In 1999, we operated on a young man, he did not say that he had hemophilia,” says Rifat Zainutdinov. “Our mobile hemostasiology team calls, they say we can’t stop the bleeding, he will die.

I am calling the President of the All-Russian Hemophilia Society, Yuri Zhulev, in Moscow. I say: “Help us, we don’t have a factor.” They sent him by plane within 24 hours, and the guy was saved. Then again some incident happened, and Yura said to me: “Maybe you’ll start hammering your authorities?”

Then I went to Semyon Isaakovich Spektor, I am very grateful to him, he is the first person in the government who supported me and knocked out 2 million so that we would have reserves of Octanate.

Then the deputies helped to include another 15 million in a separate line for the purchase of the factor, the City Health Department gave half a million so that the mobile team would always have this drug.

He began working on the problems of hemophilia patients in the Sverdlovsk region in 1998, heading the regional organization of the All-Russian Hemophilia Society. The first step was to organize donor events, attract private security companies, bus drivers, talk about donation on television, calling for blood donation not only for hemophilia patients, but for everyone who needs it.

“I’m a Tatar, and mostly Tatars and Bashkirs helped me,” says Zainutdinov. — Thanks to all my acquaintances, friends who supported and helped.

Hemophilia, contrary to popular belief, does not only affect men. Women get sick very rarely, but such cases still exist, and in Yekaterinburg too. Plus, women have von Willebrand disease, also a hereditary blood disease that causes spontaneous bleeding, similar to bleeding in hemophilia. One day, Rifat met a woman with hemophilia by chance in a taxi.

— I have an order, a woman sits down with two children, we got to talking, it turned out she has hemophilia. He says, so you’re the president of our society and you’re a taxi driver? Well, life forces you. You, he says, saved my life. Tells. She began bleeding during childbirth, and at that time, in 2006, for some reason we did not have a factor in the city. I didn’t know what to do, I went to Zhenya Roizman, he was then a State Duma deputy, and told me what and how. The next day we are sitting in the organization’s office, bang - the prosecutor’s office comes. I overheated, I think I did something wrong, I think I’m watching my language,” Rifat Ravilievich laughs. — They say: we received a complaint from State Duma deputy Roizman. And within 24 hours we had a factor. The woman's bleeding was stopped. I was pleased to hear this story. Now Alexander Bessmertnykh is helping Zainutdinov with the organization; he also has hemophilia. The diagnosis was made at three years after examination due to frequent hematomas and bleeding. They immediately checked my younger brother - he also has hemophilia. Both Rifat and Alexander had the first cases of the disease in the family. Two months ago, Alexander underwent knee replacement surgery - this is also a consequence of the disease.

“Our main task is to maintain Octanate dosages so that everyone has enough doses to live without bleeding,” says Alexander. — There are such problems that the ministry wins back the tender, but they have not yet had time to deliver the drug, there are delays from two weeks to a month. We're looking to see who has saved supplies that can be given to people who need it right now.

“We hold meetings in the ministry, in the city health department, we solve pressing problems with donation,” adds Rifat Zainutdinov. — I like that young guys have become very active, there is such Timofey Zhukov, he has been helping us for the second year with the logo of the All-Russian Hemophilia Society, this logo will be lit on the evening of April 17 at the Yeltsin Center. And we are very lucky that we have a visiting team; it is the only one left in Russia.

Previously, there were such teams in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kirov, but they were gradually abandoned, and patients call a regular ambulance. A leading specialist in hemophilia and von Willebrand disease in the Sverdlovsk region, Farida Perina, believes that this is correct.

“As a doctor, I don’t really support the presence of a specialized team,” she told E1.RU.

- Yes, of course, this is a rescue team, but if the patient gets used to the fact that there is a team, he will not help himself on his own, and this is scary.

All over the world, therefore, it seems that specialized teams are being abandoned; there should just be an ambulance that will provide assistance or take you to a medical facility. It is necessary that every patient with hemophilia knows how to inject himself.

The organization conducts schools and seminars for hemophilia patients. This Saturday, a visiting nurse will teach them how to administer intravenous injections on their own.

“I always drive a factor in the car,” says Alexander Bessmertnykh. “Once, while on vacation outside the city, a stick flew off into my knee, and it began to swell.

When bleeding occurs, the blood spills out, pinches the blood vessels, the joints expand, resulting in pain. It gets to the point where the knee swells up like a two-liter can. And there is nowhere for the blood to go, there is no outflow.

In another situation, I had to look for someone to take me to the city, to the hospital. But I had a factor, I gave myself the injection.

Rifat Ravilievich also learned to give intravenous injections himself. He shows his hands - they are all in “paths”. A comparison inevitably arises.

“There were such incidents,” he nods. “It happened that we were mistaken for drug addicts, they locked us up in the police station, and a team came out and pulled us out. After one such incident, I thought, let me write a letter to the police, they responded, and I came, spoke, explained what hemophilia is.

Zainutdinov teaches parents who have children with hemophilia not to overprotect them and not to lock them at home (some transfer their children to home schooling).

- If a person moves only around the apartment, almost never goes outside, he, on the contrary, will have more hematomas. In addition, a person somehow withdraws, sits on the computer, and doesn’t need anything else. But you need communication, friends, and, after all, going on dates. There is no need to prohibit anything.

If a bruise appears, if it doesn’t hurt, let it dissolve; if it hurts, give it a factor, and let the child run and jump further. We had a hockey player with a mild form of hemophilia, a master of sports in arm wrestling.

This is what I constantly try to instill in parents: “Don’t be afraid, let the child grow, let him move, so that the joints, arms and legs bend and develop.”

The carriers of the disease are women; the carrier has a 50/50 chance of giving birth to a sick child. According to Farida Perina, children with hemophilia in the Sverdlovsk region have become less frequently born.

Future parents undergo prenatal diagnosis and, if this is not the first child and hemophilia is confirmed, they are ready to terminate the pregnancy.

But there are two families who refused diagnosis and are now raising three children with severe hemophilia.

“This is also a good symptom, actually,” says the specialist. — That is, psychotherapy has been carried out, people understand that they live happily ever after with hemophilia, the main thing is to inject the factor in a timely manner.

Moreover, we teach patients to do this, we explain that it is necessary to carry out prevention. There are very smart patients in our region, I love and respect them. Every summer since 1995, our hemophiliac group goes on vacation to the sea.

All our patients are like one big family.

Patients with hemophilia are in vital need of donated blood. We talked in detail about how to become a donor in Yekaterinburg. You can also read real stories about how the people of the Urals were saved by donor blood.

Source: //woman.rambler.ru/other/42047971-mame-govorili-chto-ya-dozhivu-tolko-do-18-let-istoriya-ekaterinburzhtsa-s-gemofiliey/

Statistical data

A small percentage of the planet's inhabitants suffer from color blindness. World statistics are provided in the table:

Given these data, one can understand how rarely women experience color blindness. Research has shown that people of the white race are more likely to suffer from color blindness. There is a very low percentage of color vision impairment in black people. Patients mainly experience red-green vision defect. Most victims do not perceive only one color.

It is rare to find a lack of perception of the color blue. In medical practice, there have been very rare cases of complete absence of color perception, when a person watches like a black and white film. This form can be transmitted genetically 1 time in a million. In any case, there are exceptions. Scientific research has discovered 23 people who lived on an ocean island. They were diagnosed with a complete lack of color difference. The reason was hidden in the small population and consanguineous marriages. This led to gene mutation.

Initially, this pathology was not given due attention. Colorblind people were not disabled. One day, a passenger train driver caused a massive disaster because he couldn't see the color red. Only after this tragedy did medicine begin to take this pathology more seriously. In the modern world, many large industries pay attention to such people. You can see different patterns, styles in blue shades. This is due to the fact that this color is distinguished by everyone.

Every tenth man is colorblind?

You ask: “Honey, how do you like my new coral dress?” and you get the answer: “Yes, great. Red suits you very well”? Don’t be upset: only 10% of men on the planet suffer from obvious color blindness, but almost every color blind man suffers from inadequate perception of individual colors, especially all shades of red. Blue can also be classified as a similar “complex” color – for some reason it is often seen as purple by men.

It is the fairer sex who are carriers of a defective gene that is passed on to men and makes them colorblind.

What color are apples?

Is everything okay with your color perception? Think about it, paradoxically, most of us don’t even realize that we are colorblind . Colorblind people learn about this feature completely by accident. Write in the comments what color the apples are in the picture. The author, for example, sees green and... lilac.

And finally. To check your color perception, we advise you to watch the following video. This is a fairly effective test for color blindness: if you do not see any differences between the right and left pictures, then you have every reason to go to a specialist (note: the right shows how color blind people see).

How do colorblind people see? – Video test for color blindness.

All the splendor of colors and colors in one video =>