I carry the sickle cell anaemia gene, as does my partner. What does this mean, and what is the risk of my baby having sickle cell disease?

Sickle cell disease affects red blood cells. These carry oxygen around your body; if you have one defective gene then this is called sickle cell trait and is less serious than the disease (2 defective genes). Sickle cell disease, depending on severity, can lead to death in teenage years or early adulthood as many conditions and situations such as dehydration, infection, operations and flying can lead to a lack of oxygen. This causes the red cells to change shape (''sickle'') and become destroyed throughout the body. If you are both carriers of the gene, there is a 1 in 4 chance of the baby being affected with the full disease, and a 1 in 2 chance of it carrying the gene and having the much milder ''sickle trait''. Prenatal diagnosis is usually offered early on (11 weeks onwards) at a specialist centre where chorionic villus biopsy (CVS) is performed to detect the abnormal haemoglobin gene.

I carry the sickle cell anaemia gene, as does my partner. What does this mean, and what is the risk of my baby having sickle cell disease?

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