Family health
By LadySam52
@LadySam52 (31)
United States
June 19, 2010 1:51pm CST
Are there any health issues that run in your family?
Here's why I'm asking: I have Sickle Cell Disease. Both of my birth children have Sickle Cell Trait. BUT no one else in my family (mother, father, sisters, aunts, cousins, etc.) have ever been told that they have either. When my husband asked his hematologist how this could be, he was told the only was this could be is that I would have to be adopted. (He went on to say that Sickle cell does not skip generations or occur in a lone incident in families.) I will be 58 next month and I have never been told I was adopted.
Do you have a medical or scientific explanation for this or any similarities in your family?
1 response
@oldchem1 (8132)
•
19 Jun 10
What it could be is that one of your parents may have inherited one good copy of the gene and one mutated copy , in this case they are are clinically normal, but can still pass the defective gene to their children.
You say you have sisters - in that case they could be the same - carriers but clinically normal.
@LadySam52 (31)
• United States
19 Jun 10
Thank you for answering, Oldchem. This has plagued me for years. I thought that if they have the gene at all it shows up as Sickle Cell trait. I know that the trait is only detected if it is actually tested for, but my sisters are 59 and 51 and should have been tested for it at some point in their lives. In my case, I actually have the hGb S and saw sickle cells under a microscope in biology lab. I thought that was pretty cool.
