A
female
age
36-40,
anonymous
writes:Not really a relationship question but maybe someone knows the answer to my question! My boyfriend and I are trying for a baby. My boyfriend was adopted and doesn't know his birth parents. He has very little information but he does know that his birth mothers sister is deaf.. we don't know if it's congenital or not. Any chance anyone knows what the chances/statistics are that we could conceive a deaf child? Obviously the baby would still be unconditionally loved and cared for, I'm just curious! Thanks
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Fancy yourself as an agony aunt? Add your answer to this question! A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (11 August 2015): Thanks all, especially you No Nonsense Aidan!
While of course the aunt could have become deaf through anything, I think I was looking after the genetics. I had read some stuff about genetics but found it hard to understand. I have a much better grasp of it now!
Of course I know a Deaf child is the same as any other. I was just curious. Same as I am about whether it will be a boy or girl or have my blue eyes or his brown! But I can figure out those odds :-)
A
female
reader, WhenCowsAttack  +, writes (11 August 2015):
Does it matter?
Worst case scenario you get to learn a new language (sign language).
Deaf people are no different than anyone else.
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A
female
reader, Honeypie +, writes (10 August 2015):
 Just wanted to add this.
I'm 80% deaf in one ear, 40% in the other (or so) thought it was due to having been thrown of my horse and having two concussion in one month... Turned out.. I have othosclerosis which is caused by abnormal bone remodeling in the middle ear. It's genetic. Women, however are more likely to get it.
Approximately 60 percent of otosclerosis cases have a genetic predisposition. On average, a person who has one parent with otosclerosis has a 25 percent chance of developing the disorder. If both parents have otosclerosis, the risk goes up to 50 percent.
Neither of my parents had this, but my aunt (mom's sister) and grandmother (mom's mom) did.
And there is surgery that can fix THAT issue. (though most people with it do not lose their hear till 30+)
There can be MANY reasons why his mother is deaf, it can be from an infection in childhood, to concussions, to genetic reason.
So like Aidan mentions, without knowing WHAT type of hearing loss/deafness she has.... there is no way of know aside from genetic testings.
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A
male
reader, no nonsense Aidan  +, writes (10 August 2015):
Okay, I’ll give you the short answer, and if you’re more interested I will also give you the longer one. The short answer to this is that if you don’t know that the lady’s deafness is genetic, and you don’t know specifically what the genetic condition is and about the genes that cause it, there’s no way to tell. There are lots of non-genetic causes of deafness. If it is genetic, it will depend on 2 things: firstly, the prevalence of the genes in the population and how likely it is that one of both of you will have any fautly genes, and secondly the kind of gene it is. Because we can’t look at the first without knowing the condition or genes, let’s look at the science of genetics. It depends on whether either of you or both of you carry the faulty gene, and whether both parents need to pass on a faulty copy of the gene or just one of you, for that child to have the condition that causes the deafness. But since your boyfriend isn’t deaf himself, there’s a good chance the gene will be what is called a Recessive gene, making your chances of conceiving a child with whatever the condition is, 1 in 4 at most, and no higher than normal if you yourself don’t also carry this gene.
Now the longer answer. I am not a doctor so I caveat this by asking that you please do not take this as a substitute for a chat with a physician. I am, however, blind as a result of genetics and have absorbed enough learning through helping out with research to have at least crash course knowledge.
How likely one or both of you are to have any faulty gene depends on the prevalence of that faulty gene in the population, and on this we can make no comment because we neither know what her condition is or any genes associated with it. Focussing on the science of genetics, though, we can look at the odds based on scenarios where either or one of you might carry a faulty gene and what that might mean. There are 3 potential outcomes where faulty genes are present. Some conditions are what is known as Autosomal Recessive. A recessive gene is one where one ordinary copy can cancel out the effect of the faulty one. This is why you hear people described as ‘carriers.’ It means they carry 1 copy of the dodgy gene and 1 normal copy, so they can hand the gene down but they don’t have the condition themselves. Since both parents must pass on a faulty gene, the chances of a child having 2 copies and consequently the condition, are 1 in 4. As I have 2 copies, any child of mine would certainly carry my faulty gene since this is all I could pass on, but not have my condition unless any partner does too. Hence there was no history of blindness in either side of my family until my birth, and there hasn’t been since, because my faulty gene is rare, and 2 parents each carrying 1 copy and having this 1 in 4 risk is consequently rare. This also makes it highly probable that my sister and cousins have no greater risk of having a blind baby than anyone else, and with 6 babies having been born to cousins with no eye-related problems at all, I don’t think that rare instance has happened again with any of their partners. A more common recessive condition is Cystic Fibrosis and you may have heard of people carrying this without being affected.
Some genes are dominant. This means that if one copy of the gene possesses the faulty mutation, the other normal gene cannot cancel it out as with a recessive gene. If only he has a dominant gene to pass on, it’s 50%. If both parents have a dominant gene, then it all depends on which versions both have as to what the outcome is.
An example of a condition caused by a dominant gene is Austeogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bones disease). The last possibility is that the faulty gene sits on the X chromosome. In this case, a girl (girls have 2 X chromosomes) will usually have a normal copy on the other X chromosome to counteract the faulty mutation, but as boys have 1 X chromosome and 1 Y chromosome, there is nothing to counteract the faulty gene on his X chromosome. This is why certain conditions are sex-linked and predominantly affect males, such as Haemophilia or red-green colour blindness.
These are passed on to the male by a carrying mother. Now the final thing to consider is what exactly is the effect of the faulty gene? Some genes will cause a condition, whilst others will put you at risk. For instance, my faulty recessive gene will cause severe vision loss or complete blindness, but the faulty breast cancer gene doesn’t guarantee you breast cancer, but simply augments your risk. So whilst it would be unlikely that the deafness is caused by a dominant gene if your boyfriend isn’t congenitally deaf himself, we can’t rule it out completely if the gene simply increases your risk of becoming deaf (which I would highly doubt, incidentally). I do know that genetics is complicated and there is much more to it than what I’ve said, that I don’t know. For example, some conditions are linked to changes in Mitochondrial DNA and are passed on by females. This goes beyond my understanding.
So what I’m trying to say is that you can’t rule anything out with this level of knowledge about genetics without finding out more about the condition and its causes, and chatting things through with your doctor. Can you find out what is behind her deafness from anyone? Please also be assured that there are many common causes of childhood deafness including damage through common illnesses like Measles or Chickenpox.
What I have said is summarised here and I wish you all the very best.
http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/inheritance/riskassessment
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A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (10 August 2015): Thanks Honeypie!
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A
female
reader, Honeypie +, writes (10 August 2015):
Best thing to do if you want to know this with any accuracy is to have Genetic counseling done. They test both of you genes for traits that can be passed down.
http://www.genetics.ie/clinical/
This might give you more info - speaking statistically...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK1434/
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