Often it is seen that children suffer from the same diseases that their parents and grandparents have suffered from. If a particular disease runs in the family, the children can inherit and that can put them at the risk.
A genetic disorder is a disorder which occurs in a human body due to irregularity in a person’s DNA. That is why we often hear people saying that is it in your genes? This means the common traits or characteristics or even diseases can pass on to an individual at the time of birth from his parents. Genetic disorders are not curable but can only be prevented. Genetic disorder is one of several cause of infant mortality. In fact, 20% of the infant mortality in developed countries is due to genetic disorders.
Genes are very powerful when it comes to birth of a child. Genetic disorders are a growing problem, especially in India. Research conducted by the March of Dimes Birth Defect Foundation in 2006 states that birth defects prevalence in India is 64.4 out of 1,000 births.
Knowing your gene is crucial. The slightest negligence may lead to a severe genetic disorder in your newborn. The best option to have a healthy baby in future is to get screened before conception and if possible even before marriage. Sometimes, families are very much aware of the disorders in their genes but, they choose to ignore the fact without realizing that the outcomes can be damaging. Each year, many parents are surprised by the birth of a baby with some genetic disease. The carriers are usually healthy people, but when both parents are carriers of a mutation in the same gene, then there is high risk of having an affected child. This problem of genetic disorders is increasing due to the lack of awareness regarding genetic disorders and tests which can screen them.
Every parent desires their child to be healthy. Carrier Genetic Test (CGT), developed by IGENOMIX is an important genetic test for family planning which can help in identifying if the parents are the carriers of the genetic disorder and also determines your risk of having an affected child. The test needs to be conducted on both the partners. In the cases where both partners are found to be a carrier of the same recessive gene, they can ask their specialist about Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) to conceive a healthy child.
