Q. Do blood disorders in parents affect the fetus?

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I read your query and can understand your concern.

Your husband is thalassemia minor, and you do not have that trait, so the chances of this minor disorder passing into a baby are 50%, and there are no chances that the baby will have thalassemia major. Therefore, thalassemia minor is not a big problem or disease, and no treatment is required. Only the hemoglobin of the patients with thalassemia minor is borderline, for which nothing has to be done, and there are no symptoms.

You are heterozygous for this trait, so the baby's chances of having this are 50%. Now hemoglobin D is present even in a homozygous state. If both the genes are defective, they also do not produce many symptoms; usually, only mild anemia is there, and in your case, it is heterozygous. Your husband will not have it, so the baby will have heterozygous traits only in 50% of cases so that no symptoms will be present. But yes, as there are two traits in both of you, if the baby acquires both (chances of which are 25%), then some symptoms might be present like anemia, splenomegaly, lethargy, fatigue, etc. Now, if you are planning for pregnancy, then whether the baby will have these disorders or not can only be detected by prenatal genetic testing, for which IVF (in vitro fertilization) is required. But if you have already conceived, then you can go for chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis to know whether the baby has acquired these or not. But these are also risky procedures. And chances of the baby having the disease are significantly less, and the only thing is baby can have trait of either condition.

I hope this helps.Thank you and take care.

Hello,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

I read your query and can understand your concern.

As I have already mentioned, no one can exactly predict whether the child will have the trait or not. There are only possibilities. If one parent has any trait, the chances of it passing into the child are always 50%. As for every trait child acquires one gene from the mother and another from the father. So in your case, the good thing is that you both have different traits, and you both are carriers for it and do not have the disease, so the child will also not have the condition, and just the carrier state, which, as I have mentioned is asymptomatic, and no treatment is required. When your child is born, their hemoglobin and bilirubin will be checked, and hemoglobin electrophoresis will be done to know whether they have acquired it or not. It does not have much relation with the blood group of the parents. The only thing is most probably the child’s blood group will be B only. So my suggestion would be if you have crossed 20 weeks, then do not worry. Get your routine checkup and regular ultrasound and investigate the baby after birth.

Thank you and take care.

Hello,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

I read your query and can understand your concern.

He must be having beta trait only as he is asymptomatic and the production of globin chains is not completely absent in him. In beta 0, the production of globin chains is absent as the patient is homozygous for it. So blood transfusion is usually required in them. In your case, beta must be there.

Hope this helps.

Thanks and take care.

Same symptoms doesn’t mean you have the same problem. Consult a doctor now!

Dr. Natasha Bansal

Experience: 5 + Yrs

Obstetrics And Gynecology

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