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Having kids. Is UC hereditary?

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Posted 10/28/2009 12:35 AM (GMT 0)
I'm curious about those of you with UC that have had kids. Do your kids have the disease too? How often is this passed from one generation to the next?

I'm a male in my mid twenties with UC. I'm single, but hope to get married one day. None of my relatives have this disease or Chron's... just different little colon issues like polyps... which unfortunately turned to cancer in my grandma due to her skipping any sort of screening. Anyways, my disease would be considered moderate I believe... just left sided and semi-controlled with meds and diet. I already have it in my mind to have just one child due to energy and financial limitations... but before I am deep into a relationship I'd like to have an idea if I even should have a child at some point. If there is a good chance of them getting this disease, I'd really have to think about this decision.

That's all :) Just pondering some things that aren't yet pertinent, but one day may be very much so.

Thanks for Reading,
Zach
Posted 10/28/2009 12:50 AM (GMT 0)
I think there could be some genetics. I don't know the details on that but I would not let that stop you from having a child. There are a lot of what ifs in life and you never know. That is just my opinion. I have UC but do not have anyone in my family who has it. I have two kids ages 20 and 22 and as far as I know, they do not have it.
Posted 10/28/2009 1:10 AM (GMT 0)
I have 2 little ones. I asked my GI and he said that if one parent has IBD there is a 15% chance that it will be passed on to the child. If both parents have IBD it is a 50% chance. No one in my family has IBD so I don't know where the heck it came from.
Posted 10/28/2009 1:16 AM (GMT 0)
Funny thing from what AMK77 said because my Dad has UC and I got it from him. So, since it was passed down from my dad I kinda worry about my kids when I have them.
Posted 10/28/2009 1:18 AM (GMT 0)
According to Dr. Kevin Rioux from the university of Alberta (specifically reasearching the genetics of IBD), if one parent has an IBD (either UC or CD) there is a 10- to 15- fold increased risk that their offspring will also develop an IBD compared with those who do not have a parent with an IBD.

I was the only one that had an IBD in my family, until about 5 yrs later when my mom ended up getting it too (she has UC and I have crohn's) so there is nothing set in stone that a parent has to get sick (triggered) with it before their child(ren) do, it happend in my family, it can happen in anyone's...it's a matter of theirs being triggered and obviously my mom's was triggered after mine was.


That's the thing people keep forgetting, you could have half your family walking around that are predisposed to getting it but if it's not triggered for them then they're not going to get sick with it until it is triggered.


:)
Posted 10/28/2009 1:37 AM (GMT 0)
Honestly, I wouldn't let that fear from keeping you from having kids. I mean, there's lots of other things they could get (even ones that are genetically based), which are out of your control. Take Down's syndrome. It's from non-disjunction (non-separation) of a chromosome during the formation of the egg or sperm. Not a thing can be done to prevent it. So I guess what I'm saying is that there are always risks of something going when you have a child...
Posted 10/28/2009 2:00 AM (GMT 0)
This is a very tough issue. Neither my husband nor I have IBD, but 2 of our 3 kids do. Would I have not I had them if I had known this - well I can NOT imagine life without them. Will I have more children and take the risk of passing it on to more children - absolutely not!!!

I don't envy my children or anyone having to make the decision about whether to have kids or not. My daughter thinks she will adopt, but then again she is only 10. My prayer is that by that time there will be either a cure or much more effective treatments.
Posted 10/28/2009 2:41 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you guys for responding. I was kind of looking for the odds I guess you could say, of a child getting it from a parent. Of course I should talk to my doctor about this, but it was just something on my mind lately and this forum is always helpful.

Thanks Again!
Zach
Posted 10/28/2009 3:23 AM (GMT 0)

pb4 said...

That's the thing people keep forgetting, you could have half your family walking around that are predisposed to getting it but if it's not triggered for them then they're not going to get sick with it until it is triggered.


:)

What you said is really true. For me... My dad was extremely sick with his UC back in 1992, around that same time I was showing signs of UC, but it barely surfaced until 2007. Kinda funny how family and UC work.
Posted 10/28/2009 5:22 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks Sweetie31105, that's the big point that I try to make that gets over-looked often because of the confusion for many that being predisposed to getting it is only half the issue, the other main issue is it getting triggered which when that happens is when you actually are sick from IBD. Those 5 yrs before my mom got sick (and I was already sick) she went on and on about how could I have gotten such a thing and how no one in her family ever had such an illnes, then BAM, 5 yrs later she had it triggered and activated too, so apparently she was wrong, it is definitely genetics on her side of the family...just because she wasn't aware of any of her relatives having it doesn't mean they didn't or that they were predisposed but for whatever reason theirs wasn't triggered in their lifetime.

That's why the CCFC is doing what's called the GEM project, they want to test and monitor healthy siblings of crohn's or UC patients, finally they're trying harder to put the genetic puzzle together.

:)
Posted 10/28/2009 1:15 PM (GMT 0)
Interesting. My aunt (my mom's sister) had Crohn's, but not my mom. I have UC, but my brother doesn't.
As far as I know, no others in my generation of the extended family have it, but one of my cousins has two kids who have it.
One of my kids has UC, one doesn't. My kid who has it - loves life, is a joy (most of the time) and - what can I say? life is a lot more than when UC flares.

And. also, I am optimistic that a cure will be found sooner than later!
Posted 10/28/2009 3:32 PM (GMT 0)
This is interesting to me. Neither one of my parents have UC. Although on my mother's side, there is a long history of colon cancer. In the last 4 years, myself and 2 of my cousins (both who are women too) have been diagnosed with UC. Both of these cousins are on my mother's side of the family as well. My mom's sister is currently battling colon cancer.

Would this disease stop me from having kiddos? No way, the same goes for both of my cousins. I have a daughter right now, and we would love to have another one soon. I plan on being open with my disease with my children, letting the know the warning signs etc, once they are old enough to understand. Things in life are a total crap shoot ( no pun intended) and you can't base all decisions on what "might happen". Just my 2 cents...being a parent has been the most rewarding experience in my life thus far.
Posted 10/28/2009 3:39 PM (GMT 0)
I think your concerns are warranted, but I myself am not going to let this disease keep me from having children. Who is to say that by the time they are old enough or even get the disease (even if they get it - back to the whole environmental factor triggering it), there won't be a cure by then?
Posted 10/28/2009 4:12 PM (GMT 0)
This is one of my biggest fears - that my son may have to endure what I've had to. Will it stop us from having another? Probably not. Will I be on high alert for the rest of my life for UC symptoms in my kid(s)? Yeppers.
Posted 10/28/2009 4:38 PM (GMT 0)
I have a few males in my family with UC. I did consider the possibility with our child. I am just making sure I try and not do anything early on that may activate the whole process for him.
Posted 10/28/2009 5:09 PM (GMT 0)
This issue scares me as well. We plan to start a family soon - hopefully the child will take his father's genes. No one in my family has it - i am the only one.
Posted 10/28/2009 5:24 PM (GMT 0)
I worry about this too. I have never known whether I would have children, I have even leaned away from the posibility but now that I have UC, it reinforces the idea that having children is probably not the best idea. Maybe I would adopt but honestly, I don't think I have much to offer another person.
Posted 10/28/2009 5:33 PM (GMT 0)
There are genetic markers, but that doesn't mean your kids will automatically have it. It seems to be recessive.

I've been told by friends my boyfriend and I aren't allowed to have kids: I have UC and medical allergies, he has food allergies and his dad has celiac's. And that's not even getting into heart disease, cancer, diabetes, ect in the extended family.
Posted 10/28/2009 6:07 PM (GMT 0)
As far as I know UC is not classified as a genetic disease. Much like diabetes, heart disease and many other aliments there is what is called a predisposition for UC which is thought to be triggered by an "event". This is all pretty amorphous and not well understood. There are certain genetic groups that have a higher incidence then others but it is unclear if this is an environmental issue or genetics or both. My opinion with the state of knowledge in this area I would not make this a consideration in having children if only one of the parents has UC. I have 3 children one is older then I was when I came down with UC and none have the condition. It was not an issue for me as my children were born before the disease "came a callin."
Posted 10/28/2009 6:33 PM (GMT 0)
This link is very helpful in understanding the genetic association to IBD, of course much more still needs to be learned but they are heading in the right direction and definitely finding more and more of the genetic link to IBD...

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2003/12_19_03c.html

This link is also informative, but it will llikely have to be copy and pasted into your search engine.....

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-01/uops-ngm010209.php

:)

Posted 10/28/2009 11:00 PM (GMT 0)

Both my dad and an uncle on my mother's side have UC. My dad had a colostomy in 1985 or so -- one of the first "reversible" colostomies performed in Canada. Others on both sides of my family have bad guts of various kinds.

My daughter started having seizures when she was about 5, and was diagnosed with epilepsy. There is nobody with epilepsy in either her dad's or my family, going back at least 3 generations. When we asked her neurologist what could have happened, she told us sometimes, these things are idiopathic. Just a completely unpredictable combination of her parents' chromosomes. These conditions have to start somewhere!

Posted 10/29/2009 1:45 AM (GMT 0)
I know that when I have kids the diet is definately going to be strict and healthy. I will do all I can to prevent the disease to surface in my children. But, I will also let them know about it and that they have a chance of getting it and to not be afraid to tell if they see anything wrong when they go potty. My mom accidentally scared me off when I saw first symptoms when I was a kid, so I'm not going to let that happen with me and my kids.
Posted 10/29/2009 3:29 AM (GMT 0)
Since you have UC, keep in mind that your kids could be prone to getting crohn's disease and not only UC, so make sure they're not around smokers, it's known that smoking, including second-hand smoke is a known trigger for crohn's. As bizzar as it is that it can aid with UC, it's a trigger for crohn's so be sure to do what you can to keep your kids away from smoking and smokers.


:)
Posted 10/29/2009 7:01 AM (GMT 0)
my dads side of the family have a history of auto-immune diseases.
im pregnant right now with my first and do i think about whether or not i will pass it on?
NO i dont.
im not going to worry about it either.
it will either happen or it wont and we will deal with it then. worrying about it will do nothing at all to stop it, prevent it or anything but make you stress out and make your own UC worse.

so no it wont stop me from having children (obviously since im preggers). my parents dont have UC or anything remotely like it. kids and people can get a whole heap of crap regardless of this that or the other. thats life.
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