Why is karyotyping important?

Karyotyping is important when people want to find out if
their children will have any genetic disorders that involve trisomy or
monosomy.

In trisomy, an individual has an EXTRA chromosome. This can
result in mental retardation, disorders, and even shortened life expectancy. An example
is trisomy 21. You may know this more commonly as Down Syndrome. When someone has down
syndrome, they have an extra chromosome number 21. By the way, trisomy means 3
chromosomes ("tri" means three).

In monosomy, an individual has one
LESS chromosome. An example is called Turner's syndrome. This is when an offspring has
only one sex chromosome,, and their genotype is X0 for gender.

When
parents are interested or nervous about whether or not their unborn baby will have a
genetic disorder, they can have a doctor prepare a karyotype of the unborn child. Then
they can decide what they want to do about any negative feedback they
get