thank God i've found this helpful site

Dear everyone,

First, I am very grateful you all are here together helping each other. I have just found out the existence of this site. God is showing me a way, I believe.

I am 23 years old minor thalassemia. Me and my boyfriend both have beta thal. I am searching for any treatment to at least reduce the risk of the chance having child with major thal. I am now doing korean acupuncture treatment, hoping for any improvement or repair my red blood cells, but I don't even know how to check the result of this repairment out. Meanwhile, my boyfriend is doing chinese naturotherapy. I currently live and treat my thal in Jakarta, my bf is in Sydney now. We try our hardest to make our relationship works through thal.

Maybe it is just another thal couple story and I have just found out there are so many people is also struggling with this thal issue, but if there is something we can do to make everything better please tell me..

Welcome to thalpal,

There is no treatment to reduce the chance of having a child with thal (major). If you and your boy friend are beta thal carriers - there is a 25% chance of having a child with thal (major). Similar to how a child inherits the color of eye, hair color, skin color from parents - they inherit the blood making gene from the parents. Please reference to the picture at http://www.thalassemiapatientsandfriends.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=278

Also, for more information on beta thalassemia click on the link : http://www.thalassemiapatientsandfriends.com/index.php/topic,1575.0.html

Thanks Narendra.

So, is it true even if we already had the thalassemia blood test we still need to do the DNA test to know whether we are carriers or not? And do you have any suggestion of what should we do now?


Thanks again

It depends - If your blood test (most likely Hemoglobin Electrophoresis) shows you and your boyfriend are Beta Thal carriers, DNA is not absolutely required. DNA is more important for Alpha Thal trait testing.

While you can do things to improve the chances of having a healthy pregnancy as a thal minor, there are only two ways to ensure you won't have a thal major child. These are by using Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), and the other is testing the fetus early in the pregnancy and then aborting thal majors. Many will not choose the latter. Anything else is just taking a chance. Do not be misled by the odds. 25% means nothing when your child is thal major, or when your 3 children have thal major, as in two families I know. I will add that many people do take the chance knowing the possibilities, but they are willing to deal with the consequences and raise a transfusion dependent child. I must also add that I do know thal majors who wish their parents had not taken the chance that led to their births.

In no way should anything I have said be taken as judgmental. I am simply stating the facts, so that you can make an informed choice about having children. Some people take it all in stride and raise their thal children without complaint. Some cannot handle it and relationships break up. Only you and your partner can make these decisions, so I just want to make sure you are provided with the information necessary to make your own informed choices.

Thanks Guys,

I'll keep myself very well informed and make wise decision.