Thallasaemia Minor

[SueDonim]

A friend has recently discovered she has Thallasaemia Minor. Does anyone have experience of this? What are the implications re genetics and having children?

I've looked at websites but they are very technical. They all seem to say that Thallasaemia Minor has no symptoms, unlike Thallasaemia Major, but it was ill health that led her to go to the Dr in the first place. She has symptoms of anaemia and also is prone to pains, mostly in her stomach area. TIA!

I found this page which explains the heriditory nature of it if that helps?

And this "Genes must be inherited from both parents to acquire the disease. If one gene is inherited, the person will be a carrier of the disease, but will not have symptoms" so if your friend's partner is not a carrier (can be tested with a blood test) children will be carriers but not ill.

Another site seemed to imply that recovery from childbirth cnan be slower and there seems to be a risk of bleeding and (obviously) anaemia is a problem.

Hope this helps! I can't resist a challenge to find information...

Thanks, Soupdragon. Presumably the carrier element can be passed on even if just one parent is Thalassaemic? It's a really complicated condition (to me, at any rate!) because there seems to be so many varying opinions about it. I read so many websites that I ended totally confused.

Your next challenge, (should you wish to accept!) is to find out whether there is a test during pregnancy to detect affected babies.