What are the chances of my babies having sickle cell?

Question

Back in 96' my grandfather died from sickle cell anemia,a genetic disease that is only found in the genes of African American people. When my mom found out she was pregnant with me, she was very scared that I would be sick because my dad's side carried the trait or gene. Luckily I am fine but I worry if I will carry the trait and my kids might have sickle cell since the trait can skip generations. I don't have any kids yet but I always wondered about if the chances of my child having it would be lessened if I had children with somebody outside of my race.
And please spare me the " you're just looking for a reason to marry outside of your race" or anything else ridiculous or rude. I simply asked a question. If you feel you can not answer it intelligently, then keep it moving please. In other words, skip this question.

Answer 1

Trying to remember my biology here (keep in mind it's been a couple years since I took it).

Everybody has two chromosomes for each gene (or vice versa, can't remember which). If your grandpa had it, your dad would at least be a carrier, since he would have gotten 1 sickle chrom. from his dad. If your dad didn't have it, I would say he is just a carrier (1 sickle chrom. & 1 non-sickle chrom.). It's really hard to say whether you're a carrier or not without knowing your mom's genes, but I'll give it a shot:

If your mom had sickle cell, you have 50% chance of getting sickle cell, and 50% chance of being a carrier.

If your mom was a carrier, you have 25% chance of getting sickle cell, 50% chance of being a carrier, and 25% chance of having no sickle cell chromosomes.

If you mom had no sickle chrom's, you have 50% chance of being a carrier, and 50% chance of not having sickle chrom's.

I hope you can find out your mom's genes and identify with one of the scenarios. Now, for the odds that your kids will have sickle (I'll try to cover all scenarios of you and your spouse):

Both parents sickle: kids will be sickle as well.
1 sickle + 1 carrier: 50% chance sickle, 50% chance carrier.
1 sickle + 1 non: 50% carrier, 50% non.
1 carrier + 1 carrier: 25% sickle, 50% carrier, 25% non.
1 carrier + 1 non: 50% carrier, 50% non.
1 non + 1 non: 100% non.

There, I think I got all of those probabilities right. I hope you can find your answer somewhere in there, LOL. Now watch, 30 people will have already answered in the time it took me to type that.

Edit: sorry, I thought it was your maternal grandpa that had it. I think it switched all of the gender pronouns, LOL.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, it's impossible to answer your question with the information provided, but there are a few scenarios. Remember that sickle cell anemia is an autosomal recessive trait, meaning that you have to inherit one sickle cell gene from each of your parents to have the disease. If you just have one gene, you are a carrier but usually will not have symptoms of the disease.

If your grandfather was on your father's side and your mother has no known family history of sickle cell disease, then you have a 50% chance of being a carrier. If you have kids with someone who is a known carrier, each child has a 12.5% chance of having the disease.

If your grandfather was on your mother's side, there is a 66% chance that you are a carrier. If you have kids with someone who is a known carrier, each child has a 16.7% chance of having the disease.

If you are a carrier and you marry outside of your race, the chances will be greatly lessened simply because it is extremely rare for a non-African or African-American to carry the gene.

The BEST solution is to simply see a genetic counselor who can test you to see if you are a carrier or not. That way you can know ahead of time exactly what your chances of having a child with sickle cell disease are.

Good luck to you!

Answer 3

Sickle cell needs the genes from both parents. Get yourself and father checked for Hemoglobin electrophoresis