info on blindness ???

Funman--

Welcome to A2K.

Ask your family doctor or your wife's OB/GYN to refer you to a Practical Geneticist who will be able to answer your questions and help you make your decisions.

With the human geome mapped, a great deal of family planning information is available to the experts.

Good luck!

first of all thx for your reply ..

next week we will go to a doctor in an eye disease hospital ...
but i'm not sure which is better for our condition an eye doctor or a genetics ??

are there any genetical tests which tell eye problems ??

ps: sorry for my questions ... i'm very ignorant in these topics ..

Well, a genetics test can't hurt. Certainly if the blindness is inherited, the geneticist may be able to tell if you have the right gene combination. Or, perhaps, he or she won't be able to. The thing is, there's still a lot about genetics that we don't know.

The eye doctor may be able to tell you (I believe) if your inlaws' condition is the result of other factors. But be sure you go to the right kind of eye doctor! Most people go to an optometrist, but that's really just a person who prescribes glasses and checks for basic stuff like glaucoma (this is all well and good and necessary, don't misunderstand me), but I believe you want to talk to an ophthalmologist. That's the kind of doctor who performs eye surgery and the like.

And, ask! If the ophthalmologist doesn't know, ask if the problem could be genetic, and vice versa. Since the problem has cropped up in more than one close relative, that seems highly likely, but there could have also been teratogenic factors (e. g. something inhaled or taken during pregnancy, if your father-in-law's and wife's cousin's mothers were all in the same town or something like that). Hey, we don't know. We're just speculating, so best to start going to one doctor and if he or she can't figure it out, go to another one.

Some cases of blindness-since-birth do not have a genetic basis. Because blindness may be caused by a variety of nongenetic factors, you might consider a visit to an opthalmologist as your starting point. All opthalmologists are educated in genetics and should be able to provide you with a better understanding of the problem, should one exist for you.

thx for both of you ...
my wife is working with a very famous ophthalmologist.
i made a very small talk about the subject and
he said he had to see the bind relatives' eyes too ..

this week i plan to visit another ophtalmologist, just to take another idea ...

but the thing i cannot understand is if the blindness isnot genetic,
my (future) child has the risk of blindness as other children ??
will it be right to think like that ..???

Not necessarily, and your best approach at this time, is to discuss your concerns with the opthalmologist MD.

and, aside of that, I think you should be aware that we are not talking about serious disease that would make child's life miserable. I completely understand that you are worried, as well as everyone would be, but, although it's your choice only, I don't think you should decide not to have kids just because they might be blind. I work a lot with blind, and I worked with blind kids as well. And aside of their handicap they are perfectly normal kids, and also you have to keep in mind that they are born this way, and they don't know difference (it would probably be devastating for you or me to get blind now, but not for kids born blind).

i dont want to be misunderstood ...
i dont say i cannot live with that ...

if there's a chance nobody wants to be blind !!
you work with blind people i live with them for 12 years...
it's what my father in love can do, almost everything like fixing the refrigerator's motor ..

but that does not mean it doesnt make sense for him
because he is born blind ..

all i want is to learn the percentage to have a blind child ...
our decision will come after that ..
thx anyway...

Since you're to be the potential parent, these concerns of yours' need to be discussed with an opthalmologist, who deals with eye disease, on a daily basis, as a professional.