A Dose Of Testosterone

It takes a lot to shock me, a mean, ya know, after raising a ton of kids, dealing with all kinds of people in business, and just basically everything that's happened in my life in the last 49 years has me pretty well prepared to handle most anything.

I say most because tonight I saw something that actually made me scream from sheer shock. It was like coming face to face with a chupacabra.

My son has graciously allowed me to post this tonight. I think he took some sort of sadistic delight in hearing my shriek.

We began having said son tested this past year for what began as a low thyroid condition, which led to testing for a brain tumor, that then led to testing for Cushing's disease. I know what you're thinking. "What in the hell is wrong with her family? They ALL have some weird thing going on." Am I right? Of course I'm right.

While testing for all of the above conditions the endocrinologist decided to run a genetic test on a hunch. And it paid off. My son has a condition called Klinefelter's Syndrome. She hit pay dirt. My son has this syndrome which means instead of having the normal XY chromosomes, he has an extra X. So he's XXY. It actually explains a lot of what's been going on with him.

Having the extra X means his body doesn't produce enough testosterone on it's own. He'll be 21 in May and was shaving maybe once every month or two, he still has eight baby teeth, and the list goes on.

He's been on the treatment for about six months now. The treatment consists of applying a testosterone gel to his shoulders and chest every day for the rest of his life. I asked him if he noticed any difference besides his facial hair growing in thicker and at a much faster pace. He said, "As a matter of fact yes. I'm growing a little hair on my arms."

"You mean under your arms?"

"No Mom, I mean ON my arms."

"Let me see."

"Ok," he said as he smirked and pulled up the sleeve of his shirt.


I'll let you be the judge of whether my gasps of horror were justified or not. Here's a pic of my smiling, handsome son. Click the pic to see what scared the holy shit out of me.