Is some deafness hereditary?

Lillys dad said:
This is the part that pisses me off. When some peopl ehear this, they usually say something along the lines of "well, I guess you are not going to have anymore children are you?". My first comment (before getting rude) is usually along the lines of "Why would it stop me? Just because my daughter is deaf, doesnt mean that theres something wrong with her! From that point, if they figure it out, I stay nice. If they get ignorant, I will get more ignorant.
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I love how you retort back when an ignorant person hurls an insensitive assumption about your plans for bearing more children.

My entire family is hearing. I'm the only congenitally deaf person but I have a good chance of producing deaf children. That doesn't bother me in the slightest bit, as starting a family isn't part of my immediate future plans.
 
That is a very polite way of phrasing that! "retort back" I love it!
I am very used to dealing with people when they are being ignorant. It comes with the job. As far as I am concerned, if you get ignorant with me, it is my moral obligation to get more ignorant with you. Once again, I feel that is also a part of my job. Besides, how dare someone assume that something is wrong with my daughter, or any deaf person simply because they cannot hear, or hear differently than they do. It just proves that their mother should have swallowed on the night they were concieved! OOPS, sorry, I guess the ignorance aspect crept through! Sorry.

Actually, if you are interested, you can get a simple blood test to find out if you are a carrier of conexxin 26.

My wife and I considerede going through the whole genetic counseling thing to find out if there was anything serious hanging out in our DNA that might lead to something serious. Another reason was to find out if the Conexxin 26 led to anything else other than hearing loss. I found out that deafness is the only thing that it causes. We decided that since we produced such a beautiful girl, that nothing is wrong with our DNA.
 
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Lillys dad said:
As others have said, deafness can be genetic. They have figured out the cause of most genetic senseonerual hearing loss. It is a recessive gene called Conexxin 26. This is what caused Lillys deafness. It is only within the last year and a half or so that they can find this out.
When Lilly had her CI surgery, they took a blood sample from her. After the surgery, the Dr. told me they examined her DNA (at our request earlier). They discovered the Conexxin 26. By finding this, it told the Dr that my wife and I were both carriers of this gene. We were further told that any child we had will have a 1 in 4 chance of being born deaf.
I think we were told that Lilly has a 50% chance of being a carrier of this gene also.
1 in 30 Americans are carriers of this gene.

This is the part that pisses me off. When some peopl ehear this, they usually say something along the lines of "well, I guess you are not going to have anymore children are you?". My first comment (before getting rude) is usually along the lines of "Why would it stop me? Just because my daughter is deaf, doesnt mean that theres something wrong with her! From that point, if they figure it out, I stay nice. If they get ignorant, I will get more ignorant.
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UCLA is currently doing extensive research on Connexxin 26. They just received a 3 year grant to continue. (Received an email the other day saying UCLA was looking for research assistants/interpreters/transliteraters for this particular project.) Anything that comes my way, I'll keep you posted on.
 
Lillys dad said:
As others have said, deafness can be genetic. They have figured out the cause of most genetic senseonerual hearing loss. It is a recessive gene called Conexxin 26. This is what caused Lillys deafness. It is only within the last year and a half or so that they can find this out.
When Lilly had her CI surgery, they took a blood sample from her. After the surgery, the Dr. told me they examined her DNA (at our request earlier). They discovered the Conexxin 26. By finding this, it told the Dr that my wife and I were both carriers of this gene. We were further told that any child we had will have a 1 in 4 chance of being born deaf.
I think we were told that Lilly has a 50% chance of being a carrier of this gene also.
1 in 30 Americans are carriers of this gene.

This is the part that pisses me off. When some peopl ehear this, they usually say something along the lines of "well, I guess you are not going to have anymore children are you?". My first comment (before getting rude) is usually along the lines of "Why would it stop me? Just because my daughter is deaf, doesnt mean that theres something wrong with her! From that point, if they figure it out, I stay nice. If they get ignorant, I will get more ignorant.
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My deafness is from the same recessive gene Conexxin 26. My deaf brother and I are the only ones deaf in our family. What makes this so interesting is that my parents just had me and my brother together and then they divorced. They married for the 2nd time and had kids with their 2nd spouses and all my half brothers (1 from my mom and her 2nd husband and 3 from my dad and his 2nd wife)..guess what? They are all hearing so if my parents had another kid together, will that kid be deaf too? I kinda wish they did so we can have more deaf family members but I am lucky to have my deaf brother. :ily: to my brother!
 
If they had another kid, he/she would have a 25% chance of being deaf. As I said 1 in 30 Americans are carriers of this gene. When your parents remarried and had other children, if their respective spouses were carriers of Conexxin 26, then they too would have a 25% chance of having a deaf child.
 
My fiance Abel is deaf (born deaf) and his 2 brothers are also deaf. We don't know, though, if it's due to Connexin 26, all we know is it's the genetics. So, yeah, if we have kids, chances are good they will be deaf.

My deafness is not genetic, it's due to too many ear infections.
 
Both my mother and grandmother were profoundly deaf as is my elder sister Im deaf but didnt lose my hearing until I was a teenager, my 9 year old daughter is profoundly deaf.
 
Lillys dad: Another reason was to find out if the Conexxin 26 led to anything else other than hearing loss. I found out that deafness is the only thing that it causes. We decided that since we produced such a beautiful girl, that nothing is wrong with our DNA. That is the cause of deafness/hoh in my immediate family and even in our daughter-in-law's (Fragmenter's wife) family (her older sister is hoh and I personally know their older second-cousin whose mother actually knew me as a little girl!) and in our son-in-law's (Fragmenter's sister's husband) family (he has deaf parents, deaf half-brothers and a few deaf uncles on his father's side, not sure about his mother's side). I have 2 older adult children (hearing) by my first husband who came from a deaf family that had different causes of their deafness/hoh but not genetic.
And Lillys dad, yes you do indeed have a beautiful little girl! No, there is nothing wrong with your DNA! :dance2:


Lucia: My fiance Abel is deaf (born deaf) and his 2 brothers are also deaf. We don't know, though, if it's due to Connexin 26, all we know is it's the genetics. So, yeah, if we have kids, chances are good they will be deaf.

My deafness is not genetic, it's due to too many ear infections. Lucia, if I remember right, it will be more likely 25% possible for you and Abel if you don't have Connexin 26. But still enjoy your future children whether they're deaf or not! :hug:

Jillo: UCLA is currently doing extensive research on Connexxin 26. They just received a 3 year grant to continue. (Received an email the other day saying UCLA was looking for research assistants/interpreters/transliteraters for this particular project.) Anything that comes my way, I'll keep you posted on. That is interesting tidbit of information. Actually Gallaudet did the research on my family about 7 or 8 years ago. I'd filled out a questionnaire Fragmenter and his sister brought home from school and they "zeroed" on us due to the different aspects of deafness in my family -- remember I had 2 hearing children from 1st husband from a deaf family and then 2 deaf children from my husband from a mostly hearing family -- he has 1 hearing bro, 1 hoh sister and 1 deaf sister and nothing further while I have a hoh sister and nothing further. And I know many deaf/hoh siblings and have suspicions they have the same cause.
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Ok, ok, I'll just shut up. Have a nice evening, all... :cool:
 
I suspect there's something that played the role of my deafness. I don't have any deaf members in my family except for a 2nd cousin of my mom. I also have Usher's so there must be long, long, long way back and otherwise, I wouldn't have it.
 
I dont know about ushers, but if you think about it, the deaf 2nd cousin of your mother and you, could easily fall within the % of connexin 26. As I said, I am a carrier and so is my wife. 1 in 30 Americans are carriers. The only person in either family that has any serious hearing issues is my father in law. His was attributed to othe medical issues. When he was 24 he had a heart attack, he lost his hearing within two hours of the heart attack. He now cannot hear without his HA. When talking about my father in laws hearing loss, you must remember that this happened in the late 50s'. So there was alot that they didnt know back then.
He si the only person that we know of in either family that had a hearing loss. So your family is really not that much different.
 
Pretty much the same concept, really. We can't really prove because there were no formal way to connect one to another. Back then, there were no formal way to get people buried. They often were eaten by animals or savages. The next thing was, you know, the existence of proof has slimmed to nearly impossible. There could be the missing links to this in the family tree.

Unless there's a miraculous medical thing happening, you will not know.
 
You can get a simple blood test to tell you if you have the connexin 26 gene.
 
Well, My husband have a deaf brother. Now, We got 3 kids.. My older son is hearing, daugther is hard of hearing and son is deaf... That is our 2th generation. If u get more kids.. that will be 25% chance to get a deaf child. Like I got 2 kids hoh and deaf.

I dont have any deaf member of my own family generation... Only my husband s side.

Its important to have a healthy child.

M-:afro:
 
greema said:
Lillys dad: Another reason was to find out if the Conexxin 26 led to anything else other than hearing loss. I found out that deafness is the only thing that it causes. We decided that since we produced such a beautiful girl, that nothing is wrong with our DNA. That is the cause of deafness/hoh in my immediate family and even in our daughter-in-law's (Fragmenter's wife) family (her older sister is hoh and I personally know their older second-cousin whose mother actually knew me as a little girl!) and in our son-in-law's (Fragmenter's sister's husband) family (he has deaf parents, deaf half-brothers and a few deaf uncles on his father's side, not sure about his mother's side). I have 2 older adult children (hearing) by my first husband who came from a deaf family that had different causes of their deafness/hoh but not genetic.
And Lillys dad, yes you do indeed have a beautiful little girl! No, there is nothing wrong with your DNA! :dance2:


Lucia: My fiance Abel is deaf (born deaf) and his 2 brothers are also deaf. We don't know, though, if it's due to Connexin 26, all we know is it's the genetics. So, yeah, if we have kids, chances are good they will be deaf.

My deafness is not genetic, it's due to too many ear infections. Lucia, if I remember right, it will be more likely 25% possible for you and Abel if you don't have Connexin 26. But still enjoy your future children whether they're deaf or not! :hug:

Jillo: UCLA is currently doing extensive research on Connexxin 26. They just received a 3 year grant to continue. (Received an email the other day saying UCLA was looking for research assistants/interpreters/transliteraters for this particular project.) Anything that comes my way, I'll keep you posted on. That is interesting tidbit of information. Actually Gallaudet did the research on my family about 7 or 8 years ago. I'd filled out a questionnaire Fragmenter and his sister brought home from school and they "zeroed" on us due to the different aspects of deafness in my family -- remember I had 2 hearing children from 1st husband from a deaf family and then 2 deaf children from my husband from a mostly hearing family -- he has 1 hearing bro, 1 hoh sister and 1 deaf sister and nothing further while I have a hoh sister and nothing further. And I know many deaf/hoh siblings and have suspicions they have the same cause.
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Ok, ok, I'll just shut up. Have a nice evening, all... :cool:
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Yes, Gallaudet does some amazing research as well. I mentioned the one at UCLA because I received an email from them looking for research assistants familiar with Deaf culture to help with the participants.
 
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