Differing advice on Triple X syndrome

One health professional said the disorder was "as devastating as Down's syndrome" with a possibility of mental retardation Another said the child would be a "perfectly normal baby" who would go to a normal school and grow up normally

For instance females with triple X syndrome may have slight learning difficulties, be emotionally immature and taller than average, but will have normal sexual development and will be fertile.

Lenore Abramsky and colleagues from Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine in London, interviewed 29 health professionals who had recently informed parents that their apparently normal foetus was carrying an extra sex chromosome.

Enormous variation

They found enormous variation between different health professionals in what they knew, thought, and told parents about specific sex chromosome anomalies.

Some obstetric units had no established protocol for communicating results to parents.

Although there were some examples of excellent counselling, there were other examples of grossly inadequate or frankly misleading information being given, say the authors.

One woman was told her unborn son had the condition Klinefelter's syndrome.

Babies with this condition are infertile and may have a slightly lower IQ than they would otherwise have had

However, the woman had an abortion without even seeing a genetics experts after a doctor told them their child would be mentally retarded.

In the British Medical Journal, the authors argue that it is essential for obstetric units to have an established protocol for giving results to parents.

Sex chromosome disorders

Turner syndrome Klinefelter syndrome XYY syndrome Triple X syndrome

They also stress the need for all staff who communicate with parents to have accurate, up to date information about the condition identified.

Ms Abramsky told BBC News Online that there was no evidence that all parents were given the correct diagnosis, and that the information they received about their child's condition was first rate when they got to see a specialist in genetic medicine.

She said the problem tended to centre around the initial phone call informing them that there was a potential problem.

Typically, these calls were made by a midwife whom the parents had never met, or had met only once before.

She said: "It is disturbing to note the haphazard nature of how parents were informed of the diagnosis, what information was given, and what was implied.

"We should not be increasing people's anxiety. We want to make sure that somebody is in a frame of mind to listen when they are talking to an expert, and not so panicked that they cannot take things in."