CD and genetic risk factors

I am the only one in my family who has Crohns. None of my siblings, parents or grandparents ever had it. I guess I was the lucky one:( I know there are a few folks here that do have a family member with the disease also, but most don't. Crohns is a autoimmune disease and I do know also that some of the family members have other diseases such as RA, Lupus, UC etc. But for me, as I stated before, I am the only one.

By the way alot of women after having children flare afterwards because of the big hormone fluctuation. But we do have some mom's on the board who have had great success with Remicade/Humira while pregnant and nursing. Hope your wife gets some relief soon.

And Welcome to Healingwell, look forward to hearing more from you.

I'm the only one in my family with Crohn's and am expecting now (one month to go and I have had a very easy preg). The genetic risk when only one parent has the diseass is not that much higher than the general population. Plus, many people have genes for the disease but never get it because it requires trigger too.

I actually suspect that my hubby has some form of IBD. Both parents having it does increase the risk for offspring, but that wouldn't stop us from trying for another child in a few years.

is stress a big trigger in chrons?

Both my daughter and I have Crohn's. She was diagnosed with it 15 years ago at the age of 12. I was diagnosed 2 years ago at the age of ??, but could have had it for 10+ years. I was told by multiple doctors that it was just IBS. Were they ever wrong.

There is a chance that any offsprings will develop IBD but there is so many other things out there that they can inherit.  I would never worry about the "what ifs" when it comes to procreating.  If there is enough love, any obstacle can be overcome. 

They are now thinking there are 30 genes linked to CD so it's going to be interesting to see what they figure out about that. lol gail

I have two sons - 30 and 26 and neither show any signs of Crohns, however I have a sister with Crohns, another who is not diagnosed but is likely to have it and an auntie (my Dad's sister). We also think our father had it but wasn't diagnosed (he died 17 years ago).

I sometimes worry about my boys but like others have said, there are so many things out there that you can have at least we know how to deal with Crohns and can be there to support them should they ever get it.

I am the only one in my family that has Crohn's and I have looked into both sides extensively. There are other autoimmune diseases that run in my family--RA, Asthma, Eczema, and I think Diabetes is classified as such.

I have an 8 year old son who is very healthy.

I really think the trigger theory is true. about a month or two before I started getting the eye inflammation, which lead to my eventual diagnosis of Crohn's, I had Viral Spinal Meningitis. Ever since then, it has been one thing after another, and when I was told it could be Crohn's, and I looked into the disease, it all started making sense. I really think the Meningitis kicked my immune system into high gear.

I wish the very best for you, your child and your wife! I hope she gets feeling better soon!

I'm the only one in my family. One of the first things we thought about when I was diagnosed was having children and the chance they would get it. However, we feel we can handle it since I have it and don't worry about it.

There is no way to know for sure if a crohnie has a baby if they will for sure get IBD as well that's why they came to the conclusion of a 10- to 15 fold increased risk of the development if at least one parent has IBD. It's still unclear exactly how IBD genes are passed down but there is definitely a ton of research that has identified many genes that are related to crohn's disease specifically, they are not all the same genes that are related to UC, but it is known that a parent with crohns that has a child could pass UC to the child...infact my mom has UC and I have crohn's so it can work either way, more needs to be learned about exactly how it all works but enough is known that it is infact genetic but the disease still has to be triggered.

:)

My dad has a SEVERE case of crohns and I have it too. Even still my case is pretty light and though I have had painful flares I don't regret them having me and mine is pretty manageable, no where near my dads status. I am just newly pregnant now and even though I know my child could catch it, I still don't look for the negatives or anything, I just hope they can get my husbands 'never get sick' genes (his health rather amazes me)...even if they did catch crohns I know just like any of us, I don't think we regret being alive and I'd rather try and see then not at all, fear isn't a good way to live.

This was a huge thing that passed through my mind whenever my husband and I started planning a family. We had already struggled for nearly a year with infertility and then I was dx with Crohn's and went from healthy to very ill very quickly. We questioned whether we should adopt so we didn't pass this on, we questioned whether we should put my body through the stress of a pregnancy. We did a LOT of questioning on how to proceed.

As you can tell from my signature, we did have children with the help of ART (Advanced Reproductive Technologies) but that is because I have PCOS (polycystic ovaries) on top of Crohn's in which my doctor has a lot of speculations and theories that my infertility was exaggerated because of the Crohn's.

Regardless, here's what we know. I am the only one in either of our families with IBD. I have one very distant cousin with Crohn's and that's it. There is a obviously several bouts of IBS and spastic colon in our family, in which now my GIs are telling me it seems I do have either IBS or spastic colon or both on top of the Crohn's based on my last flare. Dr. Christian Stone at Wash U in St. Louis told me that only 5% of Crohn's patients are hereditary. Yes, there is some hereditary link, but it seems to be quite rare and hit and miss over generations. It doesn't seem to go to children. In fact, when I was originally dx (and this might have changed because research changes so much these days), it was explained to me that my siblings have a higher chance of having Crohn's then my children ever would.

I did lose a daughter to a rare anomaly called Cloaca, which is basically a very messed of GI and urinary system, but I have been told by Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialists at Vanderbilt, Mayo, CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philedelphia), Tampa General, IU Med School that her anomaly was NOT caused by my Crohn's. She had a healthy twin right next to her. My daughter's loss was total "fluke" in the medical sense. SEVERAL GIs have also reiterrated to me that my medications did not cause her anomaly either. Nor, do they think we passed anything onto our children in regards to this DD.

I know it is hard, but it's very unlikely you are going to pass on Crohn's to your children. You have a much better chance of "passing" on other things that are far more likely to happen. It was a hard step my husband and I had to overcome, but we came to the decision we wanted to at least try for biological children and therefore we proceeded. We always wanted a large family, and we hope my DD doesn't prohibit that too much.

On the upside, 1/3 of women get better while pregnant with Crohn's, 1/3 stay the same, and 1/3 get worse. I got better. I was able to eat whatever I wanted. Granted, I crashed slowly over the next year following the birth, but that was completely to be expected and none of my doctor's have been surprised at my fall.

GL with your decision. Don't live with the fear of "What if" it'll eat you alive!