When 34-year-old Patrick Burleigh was 2 years old, he was diagnosed with a very rare testotoxicosis, a form of premature puberty in boys.
“At that time I hardly spoke and walked badly, but my hair had already started growing where it usually begins to grow in adolescents. By the age of 2, I was already essentially ready for sex,”says the man in an interview with The Cut.
According to Burleigh, his father, uncle and his grandfather, and even his great-grandfather had hereditary testotoxicosis. It's all about the mutation of the LHCGR gene, which causes ovulation in women and testosterone production in men.
Due to a mutation in this gene, very early puberty occurs. The body of a child with such a mutation does not correspond to his age, he is taller, stronger, muscles are more developed, bones grow faster, hair grows abundantly on the body and genitals also develop as in an adult.
In the hospitals where Patrick was examined from early childhood, he was constantly intimidated by doctors examining his genitals. He still has a picture in his head of how he stands completely naked and he is cold and scared. And the doctors took pictures of his genitals and discussed him like a mutant, like Siamese twins. Even Patrick's mother was maddened by this kind of treatment of the child.
By the age of three, Patrick looked 7 years old, and his testosterone levels were similar to that of 13 years old. In addition to body hair and enlarged genitals, he began to develop "teenage" acne on his face.
Because of this state, Patrick Bailey spent his entire childhood with a sense of shame and discomfort, which resulted in outbursts of anger and behavioral problems, because of which he was even expelled from school.
Wherever Patrick went, wherever he had to undress, everyone looked at him like a freak.
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According to Patrick, he doesn't even remember exactly how early he got sex drive, but it happened much earlier than he began to consciously understand what he wants. For children at the age of 3-4, such games "Show what you have in your panties and I will show what I have" are quite natural, but for Patrick it was completely different and he saw in himself what others did not have …
At the age of 5, he first noticed an erection when he played "doctor" with a peer named Abigail and this state scared him, since he still did not know anything about sex and attraction. Now in adulthood, these fragmentary childhood memories are quite traumatic for Patrick, as he is afraid that he may have behaved like a "predator", molesting girls without realizing it.
Already as an adult, Patrick finally asked Abigail (with whom he still has friendly relations) about how he behaved with her and received the answer that she did not consider his behavior strange, since all children at this age show interest in such things. This calmed Patrick a little.
This mutation is extremely rare. According to doctors, no more than 1 time in a million every year around the world. And immediately after identifying this mutation, the doctors naturally tried to slow down Patrick's puberty.
He was prescribed the drug Spironolactone, which is mainly used to treat high blood pressure. Every day Patrick was given 12 tablets of this medicine, and at night he also received an additional injection.
However, the drug did not stop his super-rapid development and did not even restrict growth. As a teenager, Patrick was 6 feet (182 cm) tall.
In his high school class, Patrick was taller and much stronger. Which also led to problems and outbreaks of violence. Patrick was often called names and provoked into fights.
At one time, Patrick's grandfather simply skipped two school classes and lied about his age. In his years, even doctors rarely knew about the problem of premature puberty.
Patrick's father also faced this, and at the same time he treated his son's problems at school with some strange misunderstanding, raising him strictly and scolding him for every cigarette. According to Patrick, his father most likely just tried to ignore his son's illness, convincing himself that everything was fine with him. So it was easier for him to cope with the trouble.
Patrick's grandfather eventually ran away from his parents and from the age of 11 worked in the cotton fields as an adult. And great-grandfather with the same anomaly went to the First World War at the age of 14, lying that he was already 21 years old.
At the age of 12, due to the general increase in conflict, Patrick began to smoke marijuana, and from the age of 13 he already lived an active sex life, simultaneously bullying in the streets, painting walls with graffiti and stealing from stores.
By that time, doctors had prescribed him the drug testolactone, which is used against breast cancer. This medicine suddenly helped him and his physical condition improved. Shortly thereafter, his drug treatment was canceled, making sure that his body was no longer growing.
However, from a psychological point of view, things got worse for Patrick. He was expelled from school for planting an ecstasy pill in a classmate's mug, and when he decided to enter a military academy, he was kicked out of there for bad behavior.
When he was allowed to return to school and finish his studies, he was 14 years old and already had a bushy beard. With a height of over 180 cm, he stood out among his classmates as a giant among people of ordinary height.
Then Patrick's life flowed much more calmly. In practice in Ireland he met Meredith and they were soon married. And then he realized that if they had sons, his hereditary mutation could be passed on to them and they, too, would face the unpleasant problem of premature sexual development.
Seeing his confusion, the doctors told him that they could perform IVF and check the embryos for the presence of the mutation before it. And if they find this mutation, then they can get rid of it.
But then Patrick began to think about whether he should interfere with this. Surprisingly, his strict father helped him make that very right decision.
After such conversations and despite the protests of his wife, Patrick decided not to test the embryos for the mutant gene. In 2014, doctors performed IVF and his wife became pregnant.
In March 2015, she gave birth to a boy named Ned. And he, by a happy and rare coincidence, did not have mutant DNA.