Transmission of Sickle Cell

Okay, this is for all the ignorant peeps out there. No offense, but why the fuck do you think that you can get sickle cell from your boyfriend/girlfriend? It’s not an STD, it’s not contagious—it’s an inherited disease. Inherited! This means that if your parents weren’t on the ball with getting their HbS screening done before they got pregnant with you, then one of their presents to you is the disease.

You can’t get it from kissing, or from having sex with someone with SCD. You can’t get it from even interacting with them—or a blood exchange. (Although why someone with anemia might be giving blood is an anomaly anyway!) It’s a DNA flaw, pure and simple, a protein on the DNA chain that got substituted wrong. So unless you are creating DNA (Mothers!) it’s not something to worry about.

If you don’t know your HbS type, have your doctor check for you before you decide to get pregnant. And check your sperm donor’s man’s HbS type as well. Here’s a simple chart to give you the logistics. Remember, this is the probability per pregnancy, not per child. This means that for every time you get pregnant, you have the chances. Some people think that it means that if they have four kids, only one with have sickle cell…not so! Here’s the breakdown.

AA + AA
Very, very good. None of your kids will have anything to do with Sickle cell.

AA + AS
You have a 25% chance with every pregnancy of having a child that is a carrier of the trait. No biggie. Just be sure to educate your children on their HbS before they start having sex.

AS + AS
You have a 50% chance of having a child with the trait, a 25% chance per pregnancy of having a child with no trait and a 25% chance of having a child with the disease. This is what happened to my family.

AA + SS
Moving up! This is for someone with SCD, like me, having a child with someone that isn’t a carrier of either the trait or disease..(Like Norio!) You children will just have AS, just be carriers of the sickle cell trait. They’ll be fine! They just have to watch their SCD parent live with it.

AS + SS
Not so good. With every pregnancy you have a 75% chance of having a child with sickle cell disease and a 25% chance of having a child that’s a carrier. You might wanna test your fetuses asap to check. Or consider some other alternatives to having a child together…like adoption or an egg donor. Trust me, this isn’t something you want to pass to your children.

Okay, I hope that clarifies it. You cannot get sickle cell from kissing, sex or swapping bodily fluids. You can get other STDs and HIV however, so make sure you USE PROTECTION!

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SC Warrior

1 Comment

  1. icez on February 19, 2014 at 11:23 pm

    Thanks for the info…I’m in love with someone with SCD and he’s amazing to u all they have feelings and they just want to be accepted…..I know it’s hard but you would want someone to stand by your side as well…..



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