Risk factors

There are two major risk factors for developing Hunter syndrome:

• Family history. Hunter syndrome is caused by a defective chromosome, and a child must inherit the defective chromosome to develop the disease. Hunter syndrome is what's known as an X-linked recessive disease, which means that women carry the defective disease-causing X chromosome and can pass it on. But mothers aren't affected by the disease themselves and likely don't know that they have this defective chromosome.
• Sex. Hunter syndrome nearly always occurs in males. Girls are far less at risk of developing this disease because they inherit two X chromosomes. If one of the X chromosomes is defective, their normal X chromosome can provide a functioning gene. If the X chromosome of a male is defective, however, there isn't another normal X chromosome to compensate for the problem.