Can Girls Be Colorblind?

Colorblindness in females is rare compared to males, but it does occur. It is a cultural myth that colorblindness does not occur at all in the female population, but only due to the low odds.

Definition

• Colorblindness is an eye disorder than is generally inherited, but can sometimes be acquired through disease or age. Colorblindness is not necessarily the right word, however, since most people that are colorblind can still see some color, according to the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

Types

• Very few people are truly colorblind, unable to distinguish between red, green, blue nor yellow. People with "red-green" deficiency can distinguish between red, green and yellow hues, but not blues and yellows. "Blue-yellow" deficient colorblindness is very rare and is the opposite of the "red green" type.

Likelihood

• While one to eight percent of males will have some form of "red-green" colorblindness, only 0.4 percent of females exhibit the same. "Blue-yellow" deficiency is very rare in either sex.

Misconceptions

• Historically, females have been thought to be unable to develop colorblindness. This is a common perception since the majority of people who are colorblind are male.

Fun Fact

• Fortunately for colorblind people, researchers may be close to making colorblindness treatable using genetic science. Colorblindness has been alleviated in squirrel monkeys by researchers at the University of Washington, according to The Washington Post. But scientists caution that much more research is needed before genetic therapy is used to treat human eye disorders, including colorblindness.