next »

[sunny27]

Hi Friends,

My wife and I are both have beta thalassemia trait, We have a 9 year old boy with trait. My wife was very sad during pregnancy as doctors could not do the test till she was 4-5 months pregnant. We decided not to have more babies. Now she wants another baby. Is there a reliable early test to check if baby have or not acquired the Beta Thalassemia disease. What is the worst outcome ? If baby has Beta Thalassemia disease, what will his/her quality of life be like ?

Thanks,
Sunny

[Andy Battaglia]

The Chorionic villus sampling (CVS) test is done at 11-12 weeks.

You live in the US, so proper treatment is available for thal majors, allowing for normal development and a fairly normal life, other than the transfusions, chelation etc. There is no reason a thal born in the west today cannot have a good life and this will continue to advance over the next decade. I have not met a single parent of a thal whose child was not the light of their life.