What are the chances of having a deaf/hoh child?

Loghead said:
I was born with my hearing loss and my parents found out about it when I was three and I was way below the standard of the number of words a child would be speaking and the fact that I was mispronouncing most of my words. I'm not sure what caused the hearing impairment, as I was just born with it. As far as I know my mother did not have an illness during her pregnancy and no one in my family has a hearing loss. Thank you for your curiosity AlleyCat; how did your hearing loss come about?
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I was born deaf as well. I had wondered if you had any genetic history or illness. I do not have a genetic history myself either, but my mom was sick at 3 months pregnant with me which may have caused my deafness.
 
Loghead said:
I was born with my hearing loss and my parents found out about it when I was three and I was way below the standard of the number of words a child would be speaking and the fact that I was mispronouncing most of my words. I'm not sure what caused the hearing impairment, as I was just born with it. As far as I know my mother did not have an illness during her pregnancy and no one in my family has a hearing loss. Thank you for your curiosity AlleyCat; how did your hearing loss come about?
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My mother didn't feel sick when the whole family came down with rubella when she was pregnant with me. She told me that she didn't even have the usual rash.
 
Buffalo said:
My mother didn't feel sick when the whole family came down with rubella when she was pregnant with me. She told me that she didn't even have the usual rash.
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Agreed. My son is deaf as a result of congenital CMV exposure. I was asymptomatic, as well, as are the majority of pregnant women who have been exposed to CMV. Had I not known the person who exposed me, whose doctor informed him to let any pregnant women he had been around know of his diagnosis, I would have been clueless. However, after having been informed of possibile exposure, my OB-GYN drew a titer, and it was elevated. Consequently, blood drawn from my son at birth was check for CMV antibodies.
 
Jillio,

I'm not very familiar with illnesses or conditions related to deafness.

What is CMV?
 
CMV=Cycomegavirus
You know overall, hearing loss is not something to really worry about.
It's simply a physical difference which can be adapted to. It's not like you're passing on bipolar or scieazophernia or Tay-Sachs or Sickle Cell or whatever.
 
I don't know if I have any chances of having Deaf child. However my son is hearing... and his father was hearing.

I was born Deaf due to CMV..... so my deafness isn't genetic.... However I may carry Deaf Gene, I'll never know as I was adopted so I don't know my Biological family history.
 
Does having a child who may be deaf bother you? Does it really matter to you? Have you considered genetic testing and what you would choose if you were told that your child may be deaf? On that note, have you considered what you might feel if after having a child, this child was burned in a fire, or paralyzed due to an accident, or was brain damaged due to lack of oxygen....there are so many things that can happen. Do you want a child or a perfect child? wondering.
 
mshel said:
Does having a child who may be deaf bother you? Does it really matter to you? Have you considered genetic testing and what you would choose if you were told that your child may be deaf? On that note, have you considered what you might feel if after having a child, this child was burned in a fire, or paralyzed due to an accident, or was brain damaged due to lack of oxygen....there are so many things that can happen. Do you want a child or a perfect child? wondering.
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I had previously answered this question in another post in this thread. :) I have reposted it:

Loghead said:
I can see that there is the assumption that I don't ever want a kid with a hearing problem like me, which is not the case. I am just wondering if I was to ever marry a hearing woman (which would most likely be the case since I do not know very many other people who are hard of hearing) if she would be accepting of the fact of it being a possibility. I am just looking toward the future as I am curious. :)
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I have hereditary hearing loss. It's a dominant gene. My children have a 50% change of having the gene. Right now they are hearing. I don't know whether one or both of them will develop hearing loss. We'll deal with it if it happens. If they do inherit the hearing loss, it won't make either one less fabulous. :)
 
sallylou said:
I have hereditary hearing loss. It's a dominant gene. My children have a 50% change of having the gene. Right now they are hearing. I don't know whether one or both of them will develop hearing loss. We'll deal with it if it happens. If they do inherit the hearing loss, it won't make either one less fabulous. :)
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If you know the gene, why not get them tested?
 
I have a chance to have a deaf child but both of my kids are hearing. I think my chances would increase if I had children with a deaf man who has hereditary deafness. However, I think my children are carrying the deaf gene so their kids may be deaf. Who knows. Doesnt bother me one bit to have either. :)
 
Bottesini, I can get tested for the gene. Currently, there are only a few genes that they test for now. If you don't have those particular genes, they don't test further. It's a matter of how much knowledge is available right now. The geneticists don't have all of the hearing loss genes sorted out yet. I hope that testing expands more in the future. When more testing is available, I would like to get tested and maybe have my kids tested (if they wanted to know).

As far as genetic counseling while I was pregnant, I was really only concerned with pervasive chromosomal conditions like Downs Syndrome. My youngest child is 8 YO so only limited testing was available. To be honest, hearing loss didn't concern me because I felt that I could handle it. My hearing loss is not connected to a syndrome. It's the kind of hearing loss that causes postlingual progressive hearing loss. I know that the hearing loss has been handed down 3 generations so far. I don't know how far back in the family tree it goes.

Then, there is the emotional aspect of testing. If you carry a gene that causes Alzheimers would you really want to know? It depends on the person. If a person can't emotionally handle that knowledge, then maybe it's a bad idea. Maybe hearing loss is less feared than Alzheimers, but it does depend on the person's individual outlook and preferences.
 
sallylou said:
Bottesini, I can get tested for the gene. Currently, there are only a few genes that they test for now. If you don't have those particular genes, they don't test further. It's a matter of how much knowledge is available right now. The geneticists don't have all of the hearing loss genes sorted out yet. I hope that testing expands more in the future. When more testing is available, I would like to get tested and maybe have my kids tested (if they wanted to know).

As far as genetic counseling while I was pregnant, I was really only concerned with pervasive chromosomal conditions like Downs Syndrome. My youngest child is 8 YO so only limited testing was available. To be honest, hearing loss didn't concern me because I felt that I could handle it. My hearing loss is not connected to a syndrome. It's the kind of hearing loss that causes postlingual progressive hearing loss. I know that the hearing loss has been handed down 3 generations so far. I don't know how far back in the family tree it goes.

Then, there is the emotional aspect of testing. If you carry a gene that causes Alzheimers would you really want to know? It depends on the person. If a person can't emotionally handle that knowledge, then maybe it's a bad idea. Maybe hearing loss is less feared than Alzheimers, but it does depend on the person's individual outlook and preferences.
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I misunderstood. When you said you had a dominant gene, I assumed you knew which.

I have done genetic testing. I have mixed emotions about it.
 
Unfortunately, I don't know exactly which gene it is. I wish that I did! It's dominant, though, because of the pattern in my family.

Did the genetic testing help you? Some times, I think that I'd like to know exactly what it is, then other times I think that it doesn't really matter. Yep, I've got mixed feelings about it. :hmm:

I wonder how I would have lived my life differently if I had known in advance that I would inherit the hearing loss. That's an interesting question. I think that I would have made some different decisions. I'm comfortable with my decisions, though, because they have made me who I am today.

I definitely would already have learned ASL if I had known. I hope to take classes in the fall when my kids go back to school. Maybe I can pick some up this summer over the internet, too. ;)
 
Im hoh -deaf in left ear and hoh in right ear. My DD is hearing. Prior to her starting kindergarten I plan to schedule her for a full physical exam including sight and hearing. If there's a problem, I want the proper accommodations made for her straight away. If it turns out she has hearing loss, I will be getting her to an audiologist and figure out what is the best. If it turns out she may have progressive hearing loss, I won't think its the end of the world, but simply experiencing the world in a different way. She is interested in learning signs as it is, so a hearing loss would mean a definite step towards signing. Either way I'm not worried about it. Deafness doesn't mean I have to flip out - it simply means she will need a different means of communications.
 
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