Mito inheritance questions/Pamela/advising children on giving birth

[Guest guest]

Janet and Cindy thanks for your thoughts about this. pamela

Re: Mito inheritance questions/Pamela/advising children on

giving birth

If I had a girl, have only a boy. I would tell her what my doctor told me

when I thought about a second child. I actually decided against it because I am

not very good with younger children not because of the melas.

He told me that their is a chance that the child will lead a normal life with

only a few mild medical problems that the symptoms can be addressed or the child

may be severely affected or anywhere in between.

With more knowlege and testing in the future who knows what will be possible

for the next generation.

Janet Sample

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Hi Pamela,

As far as advising my daughter on having children, when the time comes for

this (she's only ten right now), well, I do plan to have a talk with her on it.

Actually, I plan to have several talks with her, between now and then! Granted,

our family's symptoms are very mild, and so far, there have been no conclusive

tests done. Nothing's been determined, and nothing's been absolutely ruled out.

They all point to " possibly mito " or " possibly HSN " . So, really for our family,

the situation is quite a bit different. Ours is definitely a nuclear error, so

what goes with our generation, is going to go for the next generation and on

down too. In other words, the symptoms will all be pretty much the same, and

happen at aproximately the same age in our lives. So, since most of our family

never had any major problems, and had no symptoms until our 40's, and my mom is

still alive and doing well at age 70 (with some mild Altzheimers setting in

now), it's pretty easy for me to advise my daughter. All I have to do is let

her know of the symptoms, and what she can (and probably will) pass on to her

children, if she chooses to have children. We have no life threatening symptoms

in our family, just mild neuropathy, hearing loss, and the exercise intolerance,

etc. I know if we had more symptoms and more severe symptoms at that, there

would be a lot more to consider about having a family, and whether or not to

bear children. If that were the case, I'd probably be taking or making

opportunities to let my daughter know that I wouldn't want my grandchildren to

suffer the same fate as myself. This is just my opinion, of course, and having

children is definitely a very personal choice, and even with the risk of mito,

we don't know what the future may hold for generations down the line, so I think

all we can do is share our thoughts and feelings with our kids, and so long as

they know the risks, let them make the decision from a well informed standpoint.

Hope this helps some, I know it's a lot of babbling, and my situation

doesn't fit with everyone here, I know, as there are some who have much more

severe symptoms than myself. I can only speak for myself and what is happening

in our family, and I can't really say what I'd do if the situation were

different.

Take care,

Cin

I am now also thinking about my daughter, of child-bearing age,

whether/when/how to advise her about not having her own, should she be

diagnosed. (Wonder what others think about that...) pamela