Genetics

[Dm5678]

If you knew you could potentially pass down a seriously life altering genetic disease to your offspring, would it change your decision to have kids ?

@kshaw thanks for sharing, must have been a difficult decision. So I guess the genetic counselling is sometimes unable to produce accurate results.

In terms of the kind of genetic disease, I think something that you can't spot in utero. CF was a good example.

I misinterpreted this I spend too much time on MN.

I strongly suspect I have a genetic condition (awaiting diagnosis at the moment) which has likely been getting more severe with each generation, and has been passed on with 100% reliability. I've got a perfectly good life, but others with the same subtype condition I suspect I have are full time wheelchair users, chronic pain, unable to work etc etc

I wasn't planning on having kids anyway, but it's another reason not to - and if I did I'd strongly consider using an egg donor.

It depends on the condition. All of us that have children do so knowing they will die - its just we hope it happens after our own deaths. All people are very likeky to suffer at points in their life too as well. So in answer, it probably would - it would all be about quality of life.

Yes it would. I teach children with learning difficulties and there are a number of families in our department who have every sibling in the family with the same condition and I can't imagine how they manage things at home as it's difficult enough in school at times. One of the parents has told me before that she keeps hoping she'll have a child without the condition (she has three, one born in the last year). I find it difficult to understand, particularly when I see the impact it has on the children, however I don't know what's it's like to be in that position so can't judge.

I definitely would not have children in that case. One of mine has terrible life threatening allergies. I was 7 months pregnant with no. 2 before anyone said to me that it was 70/30 against this one being allergy free. Up until that point, it had been assumed the allergies were random chance. It turns out, allergies run through the family. No 2 has a few allergies, but not severe. We now have found that coeliac disease is also in the family. I don't have it, DD2 doesn't have it, but DGD is being tested for it today.

My friends did ivf and pre implantation testing last year, they are part of a trial

Please listen to Dr. Bruce Lipton, one of the first stem cell scientists. You may find you have very little to worry about.

@stucknoue Oh that's interesting. I wonder how accurate it is, I guess we don't know the genes that are responsible for every disease so it would never be 100 percent accurate for some disorders.

The daughter of one of my friends has quite a severe form of EDS. Seeing what my friend has gone through I can't imagine why anyone, who is a carrier or already has this disease, would want to have a child who will then go through as much suffering as her daughter has done.

The EDS only became apparent once the daughter became a teenager, and her parents had never even heard of the disease let alone known that one of them was a carrier.

Not that difficult decision really, I think we've been incredibly lucky with what we've got and don't want to push the chances! Being a carrier also makes it more likely to have twins and as I know we can't afford two babies at once (childcare costs would mean one of us giving up work) and I think we're just pushing it!!!