A strange but interesting question - can women be colorblind?

Many are sure that color blindness is an exclusively male disease, and women can only be carriers. There is some truth in this: women are indeed more often carriers, but sometimes the weaker sex is diagnosed with a color perception disorder.

However, it is mainly men who suffer from color blindness, and this can be explained from the point of view of chromosome set. Why is the disease sometimes found in women and how to adapt to it?

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What is color blindness?

Color blindness is a vision anomaly in which a person is unable to distinguish between several colors or shades. Monochromia, a complete inability to distinguish colors, is diagnosed much less frequently. Such people see the world in black and white.

The human retina is equipped with special cells - cones and rods. Rods provide vision in the dark, and cones are responsible for color perception, which is why they are also called photoreceptors.

There are three types of photoreceptors: blue, green and red. They are named so conventionally: in fact, their colors are not associated with the name. Different types of cones differ in the quantitative content of pigment and photosensitivity.

When a person looks at something, certain photoreceptors are stimulated, after which a signal is sent to the brain - the picture becomes colored. If a person lacks one or more types of photoreceptors, color blindness is diagnosed.

Women, colorblindness and driving

So, there are colorblind women. Do they or do they not have problems associated with this disease? Yes, sometimes annoying misunderstandings happen. For example, until recently, colorblind people were issued car licenses without any questions asked, but now this is prohibited. If a woman is only a carrier, then she gets the license easily, but otherwise problems will arise.

In everyday life, it is difficult for colorblind people to perceive broadcasts on TV; there is no particular pleasure in going to the cinema. In addition, all professions related to transport and design are prohibited for colorblind people. Although there are exceptions to any rule. In the simplest version, you can always do black and white photography.

Cause of color vision impairment

According to statistics, congenital color blindness is more common. The pathology is sex-linked and associated with a mutation on the X chromosome. This is one of the most common causes of color blindness.

In addition to congenital color blindness, there is also acquired color blindness. Its risk factors are:

glaucoma;
diabetes;
macular degeneration;
Alzheimer's disease;
Parkinson's disease;
leukemia;
multiple sclerosis;
traumatic brain injuries and tumors;
sickle cell anemia;
damage to the retina by ultraviolet radiation;
vitamin A deficiency;
influence of toxic substances (alcohol, tobacco smoke);
long-term use of certain medications.

Types of color blindness in the fair sex

Color blindness is not a death sentence and does not always impose some restrictions on the lives of girls. It all depends on what type of color blindness is diagnosed.

Congenital disorders

Congenital color vision disorders are caused by the inheritance of two abnormal chromosomes. This can only happen if the mother is a carrier of such a chromosome, and the father has color blindness.

According to statistics, the likelihood that a man with color blindness will meet a woman who carries the color blindness gene is extremely low, which is why the incidence of congenital color blindness in girls is low.

Anomalous trichromasia

Anomalous trichromasia is a pathology in which a woman cannot distinguish between one of three colors: red, blue, green. Moreover, the ability to distinguish colors decreases, but does not disappear completely.

Anomalous trichromasia is only hereditary. There are 3 degrees of violation:

A - a person distinguishes only 2 primary colors;
B - average degree;
C - mild degree, in which a person distinguishes shades almost normally.

With this pathology, the ability to see in the dark is impaired, and in 80% of cases, visual acuity is reduced. The eyes quickly become tired, and photosensitivity and diplopia often develop (in 50% of cases).

Dichromasia

Dichromasia can be either inherited or acquired, and occurs in 0.4% of women. With this disorder, a person is able to distinguish only 2 primary colors.

Causes:

cataract;
retinal pathologies;
functional disorders of the central nervous system and brain;
long-term use of certain medications.

There are 3 types of dichromasia.

Deuteranopia is the inability to perceive the color green and shades of red.
Tritanopia is the rarest type of disorder in which there is no sensitivity to blue light.
Protanopia is the inability to distinguish red shades.

With this type of color blindness, a person cannot work in some industries, drive a car or serve in a number of troops.

There is such an opinion...

It is believed that a man does not have to be beautiful. The main thing is to be a little different from a caveman and systematically develop physically. And a loving woman can choose clothes according to colors and decorate the outfit with the right accessories. Therefore, color blindness can be classified as a unique disease from the “male” category. Stereotype? But it is confirmed! Colorblind women are much less common than men. But still, when asked whether women can be colorblind, doctors answer in the affirmative, although with little probability.

How is the disorder diagnosed in girls?

Some types of color blindness (for example, monochromasia) are detected almost immediately after manifestation. But a mild degree of trichromosia can often be diagnosed by chance, for example, during a medical examination.

Several methods are used to make an accurate diagnosis, but the most relevant and accurate of them is special testing.

Tests

There are two types of tests that are used most often - the Rabkin and Yustova tests.

The patient is shown the same pictures in different lighting conditions, alternately shown a source of the same color to each eye in turn, and presented with pseudo-isochromatic tables and color ranking tests.

With various forms of color blindness, a person may not be able to distinguish colors, shades, saturation, and contrast. To clarify the result, other tests can be performed: the 15-shade Farnsworth panel test, its Lanthony modification, the 28-shade Roth test, and the 100-shade Farnsworth-Munsell test.

Spread of the disease among women

Can women be colorblind? Yes! But most often they do not understand their illness. One chromosome is affected, but the perception of colors remains at the same level. There may be cases of distorted color perception, which is explained by severe trauma or complications of an illness.

There are three major types of the disease. This is achromasia, characterized by the inability to distinguish colors in general. That is, a person sees exclusively gray colors. The second type is monochromasia - that is, the perception of only one color, which is often accompanied by photophobia. The third type is dichromasia, and such colorblind people simply cannot see some certain colors.

Will they issue a driver's license?

The main problem with issuing a driver's license is that a person with color blindness will not be able to respond to traffic lights. Restrictions are imposed on people who have impairments in distinguishing between red and green colors.

For other forms of color blindness, it is possible to obtain a driver's license: people with dichromasia are taught to correctly perceive color signals. However, they can only use the car for personal purposes: people with color blindness, for example, cannot become a driver or courier.

If you have achromatopsia (monochromasia), driving a vehicle is prohibited.

“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/

Complications

If color blindness has developed against the background of any disease, for example, cataracts, it is necessary to make a timely diagnosis and prescribe treatment that will eliminate the root cause. Without treatment, the patient may lose vision completely.

In some cases, impaired color perception leads to a decrease in visual acuity. That is why patients with color blindness should be regularly examined by an ophthalmologist so that measures can be taken in time to prevent vision loss.

Is there prevention?

Prevention makes sense only in relation to acquired forms of color blindness, and it is associated with maintaining a healthy lifestyle and the usual techniques for maintaining eye health:

regular examination by an ophthalmologist;
giving up bad habits (smoking, drinking alcohol);
consumption of foods rich in vitamins and microelements;
moderate physical activity;
compliance with precautions in conditions of injury risk;
maintaining personal hygiene;
moderate distribution of eye strain.

People of any age need preventive visits to an ophthalmologist. Some eye diseases appear in childhood, while others (cataracts in particular) occur with age-related changes. This is why everyone needs to visit a doctor at least once a year.

Useful video

How people with different forms of color blindness see the world: