According to statistics, one out of 12 men suffers from color blindness, most of the rest have a disturbed, inadequate perception of individual colors, most often these are all shades of red. While for women, statistics indicate one representative of two hundred, which translated color blindness into the category of male diseases.
Surely every woman noticed that when choosing the next outfit or a new shade of manicure, men are usually indifferent to weighty, in the women’s opinion, trifles, for them everything is equally good and beautiful. This is due to the peculiarity of their visual perception.
It’s all about a gene defect, or rather the sex X chromosome. As you know, gender is determined by the presence of the Y chromosome, in men the set of XY chromosomes in DNA, and in women, XX. Therefore, when the structure of the X chromosome in a woman is disrupted, her function is successfully compensated by the second X chromosome, and with men everything is sad, the second chromosome is Y, which leads to the development of the disease.
Do women suffer from color blindness? In order for a woman to suffer from color blindness, both X chromosomes must be damaged at the same time, which is very rare, but the woman is often the carrier of this disease (a damaged gene), she passes it to her son.
The photo shows how the gene for color blindness is inherited:
Women have color blindness, but this is not a disease, but rather, a special view of the world with a violation of color perception. At the same time, the quality of life suffers slightly, however, there are some limitations in choosing a profession.
Color blindness by origin is divided into two types:
- True or congenital – a hereditary disease (congenital form). In this case, it is passed from parent to child.
- Acquired violation of the perception of colors (false color blindness). The cause may be concussions and bruises of the brain, intracranial hematomas, various injuries and inflammations of the eye, lens, retina or optic nerve. Also, some medications and narcotic substances contribute to the development of this disease.
Symptoms
Many girls can be color blind without even noticing it. A violation familiar from childhood leads to the memorization of color names for each subject. Earlier diagnosis and identification of symptoms with acquired color blindness will allow it to be cured, congenital, unfortunately, can not be treated, it can only be partially corrected.
In the absence of a specific pigment, color blindness is divided into four types depending on the perception of a particular color:
1. Achromasia – not a single color is distinguished. The rarest species, everything looks black and white.
2. Monochromasia – the patient sees one color (red, green or blue) and its shades. Other colors look like shades of the main.
3. Dichromasia – the patient sees two colors:
- protanopia – there is no perception of red;
- deuteranopia – only green color falls out of the spectrum;
- tritanopia – only blue color falls out of the spectrum;
4. Trichromasia – the patient sees all three colors, but the activity of some pigment is underestimated.
Diagnosis of female color blindness
Hereditary color blindness in women has absolutely no effect on the quality and visual acuity. For the diagnosis of color blindness, polychromatic tables (color sheets) of Rabkin are used. There are quite a lot of them, twenty-seven, but this allows us to identify the nature and type of impaired color perception. On the tables, a lot of dots and circles are drawn, the same in brightness, but different in color reproduction. In a different color, numbers or geometric figures are encrypted on these images. If there are violations and the person does not distinguish color, then the table will seem to him homogeneous.
Just in case, check your color perception right now. Think about it, maybe you don’t know about your own violations.
Perform the same test for the child in a playful way. If the results alert you, consult an ophthalmologist with this problem.
How to live with color blindness
As we have already found out, women suffer from color blindness very rarely, but this pathology still brings its inconvenience to everyday life. It does not progress, does not affect visual acuity, but also does not respond to treatment, but only to partial correction.
There are a number of limitations associated with this visual impairment, for example, a profession. Alas, you will not become a sailor, pilot, doctor, military or driver. This is due to possible confusion associated with colors and irreversible consequences, for example, the color of a traffic light at the intersection or the color of the serum when determining the blood group.
To partially improve color vision, two types of corrective optics are used:
- Polarizing lenses.
- Glasses with colored glasses – neodymium glass.
And in conclusion, with regard to children, it is necessary to clearly understand that a child with this pathology does not understand its presence, just remembering the names of the colors of certain objects. If in doubt about your child, do a color blind test using the Rabkin method
The correct answers to the test are:
29, 73, 45,
7, 26, 15,
16, 8, 5.
If you do not see the values at all, this is an occasion to consult a doctor!
What is color blindness
The perception of colors in the human eye is carried out by color-sensitive receptors on the retina – cones. Cones are divided into three types according to the presence of sensitive pigment to different colors. The main colors are red, green, blue, and in each cone all three pigments are contained, but in different quantities, which is decisive.
With color blindness, one or more of the pigments responsible for the perception of a particular color is missing, while it completely falls out of the spectrum.
