Wife thal minor, is a blood test sufficient to rule my carier status out?

Hi, I read in other discussions on this board that a DNA test may be necessary to positive rule out Alpha-Thalassemia Minor.
I went to my doctor and he just did a blood test, as far as I know and said that I didn't have any hemoglobinopathy.
Is that enough, or do I need to go back and ask him to run a DNA test, also?

Is your spouse an alpha or beta minor? Beta usually is easily detected by routine blood tests but alpha is not. I must also state that if she is a beta thal and you have any ethnicity such as Mediterranean or Asian, you may want to have a DNA analysis to look for any silent gene defects such as Hb lepore, since these are often missed in the electrophoresis tests. I say this because we do have a member who was cleared in three blood tests that he had because his wife carries beta thal and none of these tests caught that he was a carrier of lepore, which when combined with beta thal can cause thal major, as he found with his young daughter. The founder of this group also had that combination of genes. Having the DNA test can put your mind at ease, so if you are from an ethnic group where thalassemia is common, you may wish to get tested before having children. If your spouse is an alpha carrier, I would recommend that you definitely have a DNA sequence analysis to check for alpha thal, as it will not show up in blood tests for most adult carriers.

Andy, thank you!  Unfortunately, it sounds like I will need more tests.  Is there a way to identify whether the thalassemia my wife has is alpha or beta?  When you say Asian, do you mean South Asian?  We are Chinese.  She will be going to see a hematologist soon, but I am curious to know ASAP.  She says the major symptoms of her thalassemia are anemia and small red blood cells.  In their family, these two and pale faces are the only other signs, according to them.

If your wife isn't certain which type of thal she carries, she should be tested. Being that you are Chinese, alpha thal is a real possibility, which would mean that you would definitely want to be tested to rule out that you are a carrier. DNA testing is needed for this.

If your wife isn't certain which type of thal she carries, she should be tested. Being that you are Chinese, alpha thal is a real possibility, which would mean that you would definitely want to be tested to rule out that you are a carrier. DNA testing is needed for this.

Beta thalassemia is also a very real possibility for Chinese. Not sure what province the family is from, but there is quite a lot of beta in Shenzhen, Guangdong, and Guangxi. 
Nicole

By no means do I want to discount the possibility of beta minor, but being that both are Chinese, both types of thal are prevalent, so testing the wife is in order if she has not already been tested. If she is beta, there is very little chance of any problems with a child, as the husband has had beta eliminated. Also, Lepore is not found in Chinese, as far as I know, so one of the main silent variant beta mutations is also eliminated. By the way, if one parent is beta and the other an alpha carrier, it poses no risk to children.