Anyone else carry the thalassemia minor trait?

[Freshstart40]

Hello

I discovered I had this trait when pregnant, through tests. I was told it's rare as I'm not from an Asian, Caribbean, African background.

I'd like to do one of those genealogy type tests but they are expensive and there are so many to choose from. I'm intrigued by it all!

Can anyone recommend one to try? Or anyone who has the trait and knows their genetic background?

My DF is from Sicily (possibly the only place in Europe that can match Britain for mixing up the genes ) and one of my 2 DBs has the trait. Myself and the other don't, neither does DF.

DB managed to get to 26 before it was spotted - in the US because of our Sicilian surname. Before then in the UK he was (dangerously) diagnosed as anaemic and told to take iron (which luckily he never did).

If you're interested in the reasoning behind it having an increasing vector to the middle east and North Africa, it's because like sickle cell anaemia it provides some protection from malaria.

That's interesting, thank you for the reply.
I'm constantly being told I'm low in iron and my mean blood cells are smaller than they should be etc etc.
I know we are all a mix, but as far as I'm aware my family from many generations are from the UK and Caucasian.
Perhaps I need to do one of those send off test things. I'm just very curious.

My husband and his brother carry it. It was found in a blood test for something else. One of my DD also has the trait. No idea where it came from as all the family are southern English!

Meant to add, my DH did the ancestry test and it came from southern Italy apparently.

I do. African/Caribbean background though so not unusual.

My DH, his sister and his mother all carry it (but they are from the Middle East).

However, my grandmother's sister has it, as do all her children and grandchildren, despite none of her siblings having the trait and their parents both being English going back hundreds of years. My personal suspicion is that my great grandmother had an affair back in the day with a chap that sounds as though he could have been of Italian descent (there are some slightly odd stories about her friendship with a "swarthy" gentleman neighbour in the 1920s), and my great aunt is noticeably darker than my grandmother.

It is possible that something like this may have occurred in your family. Alternatively, you could have a branch of the family that came from elsewhere. When we did our genealogy, we found a branch back in the late 1700s that had names that made me wonder if they were Spanish, for example.

This is all so interesting to me. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences of it. Can anyone recommend a genealogy test?

I do. As does my sister. She did an ancestry test and it came back 98% English /Irish and the other 2% Germanic. She was very disappointed with the results! I think the test followed the female line though. It recommended a me relative do the test to find out about the male line. I'm sure I've got the trait from my father's side where a great, great grandmother was Maltese.

That should say male relative!

My dh and two dds do. What is wrong with taking iron btw if you are anaemic because of the trait? I think sil might take it and she carries the trait too

@Thethingswedoforlove Great question. I also take iron too.

Just had a very quick Google.... the danger of iron overload apparently.

@palermonese can you help us?

I should also add, I read the recommendations too, you only need to take an iron supplement if your iron stores are low, your ferritin level. I checked my most recent bloods, mine are so I'm ok to take it.

@Palermonese your dad doesn’t carry the trait? Then you brother inherited it from your mum? Is she Sicilian?

It’s an interesting disorder, especially the specificities of who is at risk.... Sicilians bit not Italians, Cypriots, Turks, but not people from further into the ME particularly. Alpha thal even more so, that’s super specific as to where it’s prevalent.... literally China, Korea, Thailand and Turkey, Cyprus and Sicily! Makes you wonder how that happened.

Palermonese your dad doesn’t carry the trait? Then you brother inherited it from your mum? Is she Sicilian?

Most assuredly not !

www.medicinenet.com/beta_thalassemia/article.htm

might help.

Can't speak about any ancestry DNA tests, beyond the fact that people need to take a few barrels of salt when they interpret the results. There was a very good podcast a while back on the BBC where a geneticist explained the enormous flaws in the idea.

A friend’s dcs have it.

Don’t know how true this is, but part of their family originated from a part of coastal Ireland, where apparently quite a few Armada sailors were washed up, so it’s thought that that may be the Mediterranean DNA connection.

@Palermonese sorry I haven’t understood. Your DB can only carry beta thal trait by inheriting a gene from a parent, but I’ve obviously misread your post.

I've just rung my DF (he's 87) and had an earful about forgetting that he does have the trait expressed. So that's me being wrong the last 20 years !

Anyway, if nothing else, I hope that reassures people that it's not necessarily a big problem, and (going by DF) it can be asymptomatic, since he's never once shown any signs of having it (hence my confusion).

I know DB has it (apart from being tested) since sometimes when he went to give blood they said he was anaemic.

After he was tested, I got myself tested, so I know 100% I'm clear.

I do. Mine was picked up when my dermatologist ran some blood tests before putting me on immunosuppressants.

He ticked the white Caucasian box on my slip, but I corrected him because even though I don't look it, my DF is half Jamaican so he added in the test for thalassemia trait and it came up.

We were concerned when TTC because DH is half Greek Cypriot but he wasn't a carrier.

Now, even for my fair skinned DS's I always tick that they are dual heritage on medical forms so things aren't missed just because to look at them they look completely white.

GettingLikeMyMother that's actually part of the reason we had DH tested, because he's half Greek Cypriot and half Irish and MIL said the same thing about the Spanish Armada.

Interesting about the specific to Sicilly, when DS1 had prolonged jaundice they asked about family history and I mentioned my grandfather was from Sicilly the dr sort of went 'Ah' and tested him for lots of things like Gilberts disease (DS1 is fine, he just had physiological/breastmilk jaundice)

Sicilian ethnicity is just as messed up - if not more so - than British. Successive waves of invasion and immigration have led to a pretty full gene pool.

Although that said, when we visited family and my youngest brother was about 2 in the early 70s, we were mobbed in the town square as he had blonde curly hair and green eyes.