Is some deafness hereditary?

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Nomad

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I've noticed in AD that a number of families have more than one deaf person to varying degrees and I was wondering if it is to do with genetic circumstances?
 
Yep, there is for some people a genetic component for deafness. It can run in families. I believe I read somewhere here and/or elsewhere they have finally identified one of the genetic aspects.
 
FWIW, the MELAS disorder, a rare and degenerative neuromuscular disorder can cause deafness as well as blindness and a host of other things. The common MELAS mutation is at the genetic base pair 3243 (A3243G) of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and can be determined by blood samples.

I am affected by MELAS...

Dave
 
It can indeed be genetic. My wife has a form of genetic deafness (her mother and sister are/were also deaf), and she even did research into the different forms and biochemical causes of genetic deafness during her internship this past summer.
 
I was born deaf by unknown cause. I don't have any other deaf family members at all. Only me. It doesn't matter how I became deaf. It's God who made me deaf for some reasons. I don't know if God made all deaf people or some. Who knows? But in my case, I already found out that my deafness came from God who created me to be this way. God has reasons for everyone to be different.
 
It runs in my family. As far as I am aware I'm fourth generation with a deaf mother, grandmother and great grandmother (why they picked me as the sole male with it, I think was rather mean :) ). I also have a niece with it so it is carrying on... None of us have ever entered the community at all of deaf people, or attended a deaf school, I learnt sign, the first ever to.
 
Yes it is hereditary...My mother s side there are few deafies.. On my father s side all of them were born HOH....I dont know if I was born HOH... my mother said i could hear as a baby.. when I had bad whooping cough...I was HOH for many years until about 6 yrs ago... i am deaf... My son was born HOH..
 
Thanks for that, folks. Another one for the filing cabinet upstairs....

I went hoh about 3 years old, possibly mumps? Only deaf one in entire family and the first we know of
 
One of my friend's family is all deaf. Kids, parent, grandparents, great grandparent, geat-geat grand... You get the picture. I guess that means it sometimes is hereditary.
 
Nomad said:
I've noticed in AD that a number of families have more than one deaf person to varying degrees and I was wondering if it is to do with genetic circumstances?
Click to expand...

Yes, my hoh is hereditary. Deafness is common among my father and his relatives . I should state that there were many cousin marriages in previous generations. My father's mother is deaf. My father and his brothers and sisters are hard of hearing varying from mild to moderate losses.

I have severe and profound sensory neural loss bilateraly.

My mother and her relatives have no deafness. My mother perfectly hears. My sisters and brother are also hearing . I'm the only hoh among my siblings and cousins :( Being alone as the only hoh person among relatives makes me feel lonely and sometimes depressed :(
 
Yep my hearing loss was by hereditary.
My mother was the same as I, and my girls are with the exception of my youngest (last year my youngest hearing worsened so we are keeping an eye on her). Other than it was all through the genes.
 
I'm the only deaf one in my family--my parents and sister are hearing. I suppose deafness like mine just happens--I have no genetic markers for deafness, and I wasn't "deafed".
 
my deafness is from genetics... my dad have over 40 deaf relatives alive or dead since 1775 and it is caused by family marriages... my family tree is so tangled as web LOL he been workin on famiuly tree since he was 16 and me since i was 6 and it so intersting who ya related to etc...
 
Deafness isn't inherited in my family and I was born deaf due to rubella. However deafness can be heredity. I know one deaf family who told me in very careful words that it was not deafness itself that was inherited but rather that a medicial conditon that caused deafness is inherited in their family.
 
I never knew whether mine was going to be genetic or not. None of my family members were D/HH. I got a test done a few years ago to determine if it would be passed to my kids. It came back undetermined.
 
Im only hoh in my family due to rubella. But I have met some deafies with hereditary deafness but it is not the largest group in deafness. They majority that I have met became deaf for other reasons--most from diseases and a few by accidents.
 
My hearing loss is also hereditary. I have an aunt from my father's side who is hard of hearing and two uncles from my mother's side who are severely deaf.

I think it is not God's will that some of us are deaf or have disabilities we just live in a fallen world. I think God allowed it anyways and then in us His love will be revealed and His power and glory manifested.

But trailing clouds of glory till He comes... Is this a line from a song? Kindly, please give me the other lines. This is beautiful.
 
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.
 
Lilysdad, I know,.......it's not like you're a carrier for something like Tay Sachs, or mental retardation or something degenerative or something like Huntingtons or Alizeheimers or whatever. Hearing loss is not that big of a deal!
 
i m the 15th generation of my deaf line bascially my deaf family was in wsd for 150 years and i m sure more than that my deaf family was an indian tribe until my irish grandfather got horny with my grandmoher i ll spare you the details and i m the last of the genetic line of deafness
 
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