"Do you believe that there are inherently bad seeds in this world? Do you believe that there are people in this world who are born with criminal genes?" has been used as an opening line by countless short videos, and the hashtag #SuperAndrosis is plastered underneath the video.
The average person has a total of 23 pairs of chromosomes, including 22 pairs of autosomes and 1 pair of sex chromosomes. The common female sex chromosome is XX, the common male sex chromosome is XY, but the sex chromosome of patients with superandrogen syndrome is XYY.
On the Internet, hyperandrogenic syndrome is considered as: "tall, mentally retarded, emotionally unstable, violent, born murderer". In countless discussions, some netizens said that the mother who insisted on giving birth to the child knowing that the fetus was the XYY chromosome took the initiative to become an "accomplice to the murderer".
Netizens took great pains to share stories of hyperandrogenic syndrome, such as the boy who ate his eyebrows in a Korean variety show, the minor who committed a crime in the news, and the child who behaved abnormally in a household in the same community...... In academic studies, the incidence of hyperandrogenic syndrome is high, with about 1 in 1,000 men.
When hyperandrogenic syndrome comes into the public eye, pregnant women will learn that the child in their womb is the "XYY" chromosome during the prenatal checkup, and then fall into entanglement and confusion. On social platforms, every mother who actively chooses to give birth to a child with the "XYY" chromosome will always be abused by some netizens.
We wonder if the "XYY" chromosome is equated with the crime gene, and can we determine the future of a child based on genes? Countless pregnant women also want to find the answer.
Author: Dong He
One afternoon in 2022, the hospital called Xiong to tell her the results of a non-invasive DNA test she had done a few days earlier. The doctor said on the phone: "Your fetus has a chromosomal abnormality that manifests itself as an extra Y chromosome, which is called supermale syndrome. ”
Xiong still works in the obstetrics department of the local county town for nearly a decade and has never heard of such a situation. The head of the department dug out the thick medical book and read the content about supermale syndrome to Xiong Ying.
Before the head of the department could finish reading the book, he was interrupted by Xiong Ying: "Director, tell me the truth, have you ever encountered this situation? Do you know what kind of disease this is?"
The director had two years to retire, and he put down his book and shook his head. In his decades of practice, he has never seen an XYY chromosome.
The chromosomes of people diagnosed with hyperandrogenic syndrome The picture comes from the Internet
Pregnant with this child, Xiong and her husband were still unprepared. At the age of 28, Xiong and her husband are still married, preparing for pregnancy for more than a year, and the long-awaited child has not yet arrived.
In order to get pregnant, Xiong still went to the hospital for ovulation tests for several months, which can help her conceive more accurately.
After two years of preparing for pregnancy, Xiong finally gave birth to her first hard-won baby. However, the arrival of a second child caught her off guard.
One morning, she was smearing the skin care products on her face, and suddenly felt a tingling pain, the last time such a situation occurred was when she was pregnant with her first child, she checked the production date of the skin care products, and it did not expire, so she could only take out the pregnancy test stick nervously, and sure enough, she was pregnant.
Normal prenatal examinations include B-ultrasound examination, Down's screening, and four-dimensional deformity examination, which can detect whether the fetus has Down syndrome, whether it is malformed, whether it has congenital heart disease, cleft lip and palate, spina bifida and other serious diseases.
The bear was still detected with a chromosomal abnormality in the child during the Down syndrome screening step. In the general prenatal examination procedure, unless the child is detected with related problems, very few mothers will take the initiative to take the child for genetic testing, and the bear still happens to be "hit".
What exactly is hyperandrogenic syndrome? Doctors at the local hospital could not answer this question, and Xiong still had to search the Internet, but the keywords came up with were "born bad" and "crime gene".
TV series "The Hidden Corner"
Some netizens said that supermale syndrome is born with criminal genes, and the acquired teaching is completely useless, if you must be born, it is to choose to be the mother of a criminal.
Other netizens replied that in this case, why do some mothers still choose to give birth to Chaoxiong. The comment continued "popular science": "The supermale fetus secretes a certain hormone in the pregnant woman's belly, so that the pregnant woman loves him very much and insists on giving birth to the child." ”
Later, Xiong still recalled his attitude when he first checked the information on superandrogenic syndrome, and he was very indifferent: "They are all too irrational." But when she first got the result of hyperandrogenic syndrome, she shed tears all night.
There is not much information about supermale syndrome on the Internet, most of it is variety show clips and marketing accounts to tell stories, and the best solution is to listen to the advice of professional doctors. Hunan CITIC Xiangya Fertility and Genetics Hospital, a well-known local hospital, Xiong and her husband decided to register as a specialist and go there for consultation.
The world's earliest research on hyperandrogenic syndrome dates back to 1965. British geneticist Jacobs published a paper in the journal Nature that she tested the chromosomes of 197 patients with mental illness, and a total of 12 had chromosomal abnormalities, of which 7 had XYY.
In 1966, she surveyed 315 male patients and found that nine of them were XYY men, criminals with mental disorders. She published the results in the journal The Lancet and concluded that men with the XYY gene are more likely to become criminals than the average person.
This conclusion is not accepted by the academic community because of the 315 patients sampled in Jacobs's second study, 305 were criminals and 253 were people with personality disorders and mental illness, and the sample size was extremely limited.
Even so, when people mention hyperandrogenic syndrome today, they will still use the unscientific conclusions of more than 50 years ago to support their opinions.
In China, the supermale syndrome is more known by more people from the news in 2012.
Jia Peiran's crime The picture comes from the Internet
The stepmother of the teenager Jia Peiran recalled that when she first entered the family, Jia Peiran behaved cute and well-behaved, no different from ordinary children.
In the subsequent relationship, she was beaten, poisoned, stolen and robbed of property by Jia Peiran, and even threatened by Jia Peiran with a knife. After countless teachings failed, the stepmother left the family, and soon after she learned of Jia Peiran's crime.
The protagonist of the story, Jia Peiran, is still an underage, but he has committed a serious crime. Some rumors began to emerge calling him "hyperandrogenic syndrome". In fact, there is no evidence that Jia Peiran is the XYY chromosome diagnosis, but it is still unstoppable, and today, 10 years later, the Internet is full of articles "Reviewing the Natural Evil Jia Peiran: The ...... of Supermale Syndrome".
What made the supermale syndrome cause a wider spread was a parenting variety show "My Golden Child" broadcast on South Korean TV last year. A boy in the variety show ripped off his eyebrows and eyelashes and ate them in the show, violently attacked his biological mother, and spoke ill of his grandmother. When the grandmother was angry, the adults were busy rescuing her, while the boy stayed in his room with peace of mind.
Domestic short video authors, simplify story content, and disseminate variety show slices. The simple handling of the story leads public opinion to a consistent caliber: the boy becomes the typical character of the supermale diagnosed person.
However, the program did not give information about the child's diagnosis of "supermale syndrome".
The boy in "My Golden Child" The picture comes from the Internet
In a post discussing superhero syndrome, a netizen shared the story of the "superhero" child in "My Golden Child", with more than 2,000 likes, and another netizen retorted: "Although the show doesn't seem to say that the little boy is superheroic." The netizen who originally posted the comment expressed surprise: "Because I watched the video below and said that he was a superhero, I thought he was." ”
When most netizens share stories, it is usually "There is a supermale child in my child's class, who is particularly violent, often tears things and yells", or "There is a supermale child in my community who will beat stray cats and dogs"...... But in fact, they don't know whether the other child's gene is defective.
The spread of the Internet does not seem to require "science" and "evidence", and driven by short videos, pictures and texts, extreme conclusions about hyperandrogenic syndrome are spreading to every port faster than cell splitting.
As early as 2015, the journal Aggressive and Violent Behavior stated that there was no evidence that XYY patients would necessarily become antisocial or abnormal individuals. Two Italian scholars wrote:
There is only one XYY genotype-related trait that has been jointly confirmed: height beyond the average person.
Xiong still went to the genetics department of an ordinary hospital in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, and the doctor's advice was ambiguous: "Some mothers will choose to keep the child, some will not, it depends on you." You can also go to a higher-level hospital or specialist for consultation. ”
After realizing that the other party could not give useful advice, Xiong still registered with the professor of CITIC Xiangya. The professor said that the day before, a student from the National Defense University of Science and Technology came here for a genetic test, only to find out that he was XYY, and in the past 20 years of life, he did not seem to be affected by "supermale syndrome". In addition to being relatively tall, the boy did not have the acne marks and facial asymmetry uploaded on the Internet.
The professor said that children's fertility and intelligence may be affected, but even children with normal genes may encounter such problems.
Xiong's husband suspected that the child was genetic, and he spent 700 yuan in the hospital for a blood test, and his genes were normal.
The genes that form XYY are caused by an error in the division of sperm, resulting in the active sperm binding to the egg, which contains two Y chromosomes. It is possible for a genetically normal parent to have a child with an XYY chromosome, and a father with an XYY chromosome may also have a child with a normal gene.
According to statistics, the median age at diagnosis of XYY syndrome is 17.1 years, and the diagnosis rate is 18%. Most people with supermale syndrome, in this life, will not be aware that there is something wrong with their genes.
They are almost indistinguishable from normal people.
TV series "The Hidden Corner"
After receiving a positive reply from the doctor, Xiong and her husband still decided to give birth to the child. Her husband always believes in acquired education, and when Xiong still detected that the fetus was XYY, he always encouraged her: "As long as the child is healthy, no matter what kind of person he is born with, as long as we cultivate him well in the later stage, we will definitely be able to educate him well." ”
When it was confirmed that he was going to give birth to a super-male child, Xiong still stopped checking super-related information on the Internet. In the hospital, she did a four-dimensional prenatal check-up, and asked the doctor to carefully examine every part of the child, and the results were normal.
Approaching the labor period, Xiong still found a fortune teller to calculate a good day, went to the hospital and told his colleagues that he was going to give birth today, asked them to insert a urinary catheter for him, put him under general anesthesia, and lay down in the operating room. When the first sister was born, Xiong was still a mother for the first time, and she couldn't stop crying, but by the time of the second child, she was very calm, and only told the doctor to carefully check the child's body for problems, including reproductive organs.
The doctor told her that the child was born like a bear, white and clean, with round and bright eyes.
A recent photo of a bear still a child
After the birth of the child, the bear is still worried. When she was raising her first child, she was in a free-range state, but when she raised her second child, she would always observe his situation, and if she encountered abnormal psychology, she would still wonder, "Is it genetically caused by this?"
As the saying goes, "seven sits and eight crawls", the bear still consciously trains the bear to sit up and crawl when he is seven and eight months old, and the bear likes to layer the mahjong on the table layer by layer. The bear moved and spoke normally, but the bear was still gradually relieved.
Before giving birth, Xiong still hardly replied to the content of Supermale Syndrome on social platforms, but when the child gradually grew up healthy and almost two years old, she was finally able to confidently refute the stigmatizing comments of netizens about Supermale Syndrome.
Kong Xiangdong, director of the Genetics and Prenatal Diagnosis Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, posted a video on social platforms. In the video, he made it clear that it is okay to have a child who has been diagnosed with the XYY chromosome.
First, he had never seen facial asymmetry.
Second, he had met adults with the XYY gene, questioned their families, and was not violent. Third, fertility is normal.
There are very few remarks about hypermale syndrome on social platforms, and it is even rarer for Kong Xiangdong to categorically say that "XYY children can be born".
In the comments, the public still disagrees with Kong Xiangdong's point of view: "I know it's super hero, why gamble?" "Super hero is particularly terrifying, you are fluttering for a lifetime, maybe other people's families need to bear the influence of a lifetime." "Superhero is a normal kid now?"
Xiong still left a message under this video: "Superhero is not as terrible as it is rumored, my supermale baby is almost two years old, everything is normal." ”
Xiong still travels as a family of four
Some mothers and fathers who are pregnant or have given birth to supermale babies saw the comments and added Xiong Yi's contact information, and they formed a group chat of more than ten people to share their confusion and parenting experience in it.
Fufeng and Xiong are still in a similar situation, when she was pregnant with her second child, she was 34 years old, and she was an advanced maternal age. At the 30-week prenatal check-up, the fetus was found to have heart problems with tricuspid valve regurgitation, and the doctor recommended that she go to the genetics department for a check-up to determine whether the child's problems were related to genetics.
Therefore, Fufeng did an amniocentesis, and the child had an abnormal chromosome, and there was an extra Y chromosome. The local hospital had never encountered the XYY chromosome situation and could not give effective advice, so Fufeng could only go to the provincial hospital for consultation.
Although according to academic research, the probability of being a male XYY chromosome carrier is about 1 in 1,000, in clinical medicine, doctors' understanding of XYY is still very lacking.
When He Jia was consulted in the local tertiary hospital, the doctor flipped through the medical book and did not dare to write the diagnosis, and finally He Jia broke the silence: "I still don't embarrass you, I'll go to the higher-level hospital to have a look." ”
Diagnosed in a maternal and child health hospital
Fufeng also went to CITIC Xiangya Hospital, she was most worried about the child with two problems, one is facial asymmetry, or acne, so that others can see at a glance that this is a supermale child. Second, the development of intelligence is slow.
CITIC Xiangya is strong in the direction of IVF, and many couples need to test their respective genetic sequences when they come to IVF testing. Genetics experts have seen more supermale adults than others, and he said that such adults are no different from other adults with normal genes, except that they are generally taller, have a normal IQ, and have a relatively gentle personality when they get along for a short time.
Fufeng completely relaxed. In February of this year, the child came into this world, like a freshly ripe strawberry in swaddling clothes, he spent most of his time sleeping, his face was ruddy, and his little hands were unconsciously put to his mouth to suck.
When the mothers and fathers in the group who have not yet decided whether to have children asked the parents who have given birth to supermale babies for advice, everyone gave positive feedback, thinking that their children are all right.
Xiong still said that there was a mother who found her on other platforms, and after the fetus was detected with chromosomal abnormalities, she desperately hoped that it was a superhero, and she had been looking for a supermale group on the Internet to keep warm, and the result came out that the gene was XXY (Klinefelter's syndrome), and the patient would show a feminine body, and even the possibility of malformations in other parts.
This mother lamented that "the sky does not fulfill people's wishes", so she had no choice but to give up her child.
"Pregnancy is the fate of yourself and your child. Xiong still repeatedly emphasized this point, but helplessly, although some have fate, they are too shallow.
The eldest child in the group of parents of hyperandrogenic syndrome patients is four years old, and everything is normal at present, but the mother is not sure what the future will be. often talks about the remarks about demonizing supermale syndrome on the Internet, and mothers have no choice but to say: "When my children grow up, I will post the child's situation on the Internet and slap the faces of those who are cyberbullying XYY." ”
Xiong is still commenting on Kong Xiangdong's video, which caused many netizens to reply, and some netizens said: "Your child is still young, and you will regret killing and setting fire in the future." There are also rational netizens who speak for her: "The child is only two years old, what will happen after you curse there now, do you have a heart?"
A mother shared her supermale child, her child is currently two years old, "smart and beautiful, cautious, well-developed, the only point that meets the superhero is that he has been wronged and has a slightly bigger temper, and needs to communicate with him, if he communicates well, he is very reasonable." ”
Gao praise's comments are basically "Superhero should be forced to have an abortion when he is checked", "Only two years old, the road is not good, and there is a mother filter blessing, wait until you are older and can beat people, and then take a look......"
Fufeng didn't understand why everyone's malice towards Chaoxiong was so great. She once saw a mother on the Internet sharing the deeds of her superhero son, violent and psychologically distorted, but when she clicked on this mother's account, there were only two daughters in the daily sharing, and according to her age, it was presumed that "this superhero son" was made up by her.
TV series "The Hidden Corner"
Even if Fufeng, Xiong and other mothers don't think that the XYY gene is a problem gene, they are still ready to keep the fact that the child is a superhero.
"If other people learn that my child is super-male, then my child will have a little bit of a tantrum or a little bit of an abnormality, and they will probably say, 'Look, it's all genetic.'" In fact, normal children will also have tantrums and unsmart times, no way, in this society, I can only keep the fact that the child is a superhero. ”
They also unanimously believe that when the child grows up, they should still tell him about his genes. When the child falls in love in the future, the woman needs to know about it.
The new group friend Bai Yang is five months pregnant, she was pregnant with a child the year before last, and the fetus was stopped at 10 weeks of pregnancy, and she has been trying to save the current fetus. After finding out the genetic problem, she and her husband were extremely entangled, worried that they would hurt others after the child was born.
"Reluctance and dare not gamble" is the mentality of most superhero mothers.
She consulted He Guoping, deputy chief physician of the Department of Genetics of the First Affiliated Hospital of the University of Science and Technology of China, online, and the other party gave the doctor's advice: "If the couple does not have particularly high needs and can accept the ordinary and ordinary of the child, they can continue the pregnancy and keep the child." ”
Fufeng's husband is in another group of super-male parents with hundreds of people, and a mother from Australia said that in foreign countries, the XYY gene has been regarded as the same as ordinary children.
When a Chinese mother in Australia went to the doctor, the doctor said that most XYY and XY men are no different, and a few XYY men may have slightly lower intelligence than normal men
In China, the popularization of science seems to have a long way to go. A group friend shared a video of "popular science supermale syndrome" made by a certain account, mentioning that superhero has pica, likes to eat his eyebrows, and is emotionally unstable, and if others do not like him, he will pull other people's hair on the street and smash stools......
Fufeng said: "Isn't this a pervert? Why do you have to lean on Chaoxiong?"
The super-male mothers and fathers in the group couldn't fight the spread of this video, so they could only click to report.
They are curious that when technology becomes more and more advanced, we can grasp more and more information about the fetus before birth, such as gender, organs, physical condition, and facial appearance...... When the technology is more developed, can the child be customized? Is it possible to discard the child at any time when there are certain defects?
Just as talking about the choice of the fetus, a mother in the group said helplessly: "In this society, everything is too high-tech." ”
In the XYY group, the issues they discuss every day have changed from whether to give birth or not to how to raise children, just like raising every genetically normal child.
*Xiong Yi, Fufeng, and He Jia are pseudonyms. Images are provided by the interviewees, except for those noted