Brief Answer: Blood group is not an issue Detailed Answer: Hello and welcome to health care magic. I am Dr Madhuri and will be helping you with the issue. You are A negative and your wife is B positive. The child is A negative. Let me inform you that there is no problem with blood groups. The problem of blood groups arises in women having a negative blood group. Since your wife is positive and the son is negative there is no risk involved in future pregnancies. Now about other issues. The age of 38 and hypothyriodism are two main issues. Hypothyroidism leads to abortions, preterm labor pains if uncontrolled. Since it is controlled this must not pose any problems. Regarding age: age more than 34 in females is associated with a slightly higher risk of chromosomal defects in the baby like downs syndrome. Other problems like diabetes in pregnancy, increased blood pressure, abortions are more in age beyond 35. However the chromosomal defects can be detected using ultrasound, blood tests like triple marker and direct genetic testing like amniocentesis so these can be dealt with. It is not possible to predict who will develop increased blood pressure and diabetes even when the age is less. This means that every pregnancy does carry a risk. So there is a slightly higher risk of having complications than in general population. You may attempt pregnancy if you want. An early registration with a skilled gynecologist, regular antenatal check up and delivery in well equipped setup will help decrease most of the risk. I hope that you understand the issues. Please feel free to ask any more queries that you may have and I am here to answer them. Have a good day and thanks for choosing HCM. Dr Madhuri Bagde Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist

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Brief Answer: Explained in details. Detailed Answer: Hello XXXXXXX and welcome back, Let me explain the things in a bit details. Downs syndrome and some other syndromes like edwards, pataus etc are caused by genetic defects. The human body is made up of cells and each cell contains structures called chromosomes that determine how we are and regulate all the processes in our body. The number of chromosomes is fixed which is 46 XX in females and 46 XY in males. Sometimes during the formation of the reproductive cells like the sperm and ovum, defects in the number or structure of these chromosomes occur. Sometimes these defects are repaired while sometimes they are not. With advancing age, there is less chance that the defects will be repaired. Any defect in the chromosome gives rise to defect in the cells that will be produced having those abnormal chromosomes. So if a baby is having defective cells it may have a defective body or mental defects or organ defects and so on. Down's syndrome is a condition where the baby inherits an abnormal number of chromosomes from the mother. It has 3 chromosomes of number 21. This leads to defects in mental growth, certain physical features like mongol look, mongol eyes etc. So this results form defect in the ovum. Unfortunately we cannot control the ovum or sperm. Also as most of the cells in the body are defective, it is not possible to treat them as of now. We cannot change our genes. So as of now we are not advanced enough to treat genetic defects easily. Things are still at the research level. There is no threat to the mother due to Downs. The baby may get aborted if chromosomal or genetic defects are severe. However we can detect the defects by a process called amniocentesis, or chorionic villi biopsy where fluid is collected from the uterus and the baby's cells are analysed for chromosomal defects. Ultrasonography at 18-20 weeks also picks up defects in structure like abnormal hands or legs or body etc. If they are there, option for an abortion is there. Certain blood tests like triple marker also help to predict the risk but are not very accurate. So the option of treatment for genetic defects is not there as of now. The only thing is we can detect them during pregnancy and go for an abortion if the baby is defective. The risk is not 100% other wise I would have advised you not to conceive. However it is slightly more than a women getting pregnant at say 22-23 years. Other conditions like diabetes, raised blood pressure also occur in younger women but the risk of developing those complications is again higher with more age. So as I have already said, every pregnancy carries with it some risk of complications. It is slightly more as age increases and extra caution is needed. Hope this has answered your query. Feel free to ask any more and I will be happy to answer. Dr Madhuri

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