According to a 2016 research titled "Phenotypic contrasts of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in women: Two case reports," the illness affects just one in every 50 million female births. The study's authors concluded that although more women than men have the disease, this difference may be due to underdiagnosis in women. Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an inherited muscle-wasting condition that affects about one in 5,000 males. It is named after French physician Guillaume Duchenne, who first described it in 1866. Patients with DMD lack the protein dystrophin, which is needed for muscles to function properly. As a result, they are at risk of developing progressive muscle weakness and wasting. There is no cure for DMD; however, patients can take medications to manage symptoms and improve quality of life. The presence of DMD in females has been reported but is very rare. In general, these cases involve young women with no living male relatives. This suggests that either the woman had no sons or that she had sons but that they all died before reaching puberty. In one series of three female patients with DMD, each woman had lost both her daughters to the disease. A third daughter in one family was not diagnosed as having the disease until after her death.