thalassimia minor

[nicole56]

thalassimia minor runs in my family  if two people with thalassimia have a baby is there a danger to the baby? I know before I got married the doctor told me if a couple both has thalassimia it is dangerous for the baby(defects) Please reply if this is correct

[Atlanta Girl]

You have 25% (1 in 4) chance that your child is born with thalassemia, meaning the real desease and not just the trait that you and your husband have. I have thalassemia minor and my hsband doesn't so we were fine.  I don't know if my son got the trait.  Also, there's alfa and beta thalassemia, so if you and your husband have different trait you are safe. If you don't know which one you have, go to your family doctor and ask to be tested. Good luck.

[tiredbuthappy]

i assume you are both carriers? if i understand correctly, it can be passed down. if it's a recessive gene, then there's a 25% chance the baby would not be a carrier, a 50% chance it would be a carrier but not have a disease, and a 25% chance of having the disease. i know a couple where both are carriers, so they saw a specialist. they had 20 fertilized eggs, and had them tested. they implanted 2 eggs that did not carry it. it's a good thing they did, as over half of the eggs they fertilized had both genes (so much for statistics).