Genetic testing

Pete went for his blood testing today to see if he is a carrier of the cf gene. We also saw a lady who went through our options with us and our family trees etc. The results of the blood test will take about 4-6 weeks.

Basically if Pete is a carrier there is a 50% the baby we would have would have cf, because it could either get the faulty gene or the none faulty gene from Pete and it will definitely get a faulty gene from me because both of mine are faulty. If Pete is not a carrier out baby would not have cf but would be a carrier as they would get a faulty gene from me but a normal gene from Pete. The hospital tests for the 35 most common cf gene mutations, I think she said there are about 100 different cf gene mutations a person could have. The most common is df508 which I have from both my parents. Therefore even if Pete's results come back as him having no cf gene, there is a small chance he could have one of the very uncommon gene types that he won't get tested for, it's like 1% our baby could end up having cf even if Pete's results come back as all clear.

If Pete is a carrier we have 2 options. We can have a cvs test when I was pregnant to see if the baby had cf and choose to have a termination if it did have cf. Both Pete and I are not really happy with this option. The other option is to kind of have ivf where they choose an embryo that doesn't have cf and implant that into me, but I would have to travel to London to do some of this.

I asked a few questions, firstly, if we choose to have a surrogate, would we be able to select a non cf embryo to be put into the surrogate? Also, would the fact that my cf team would not recommend I get pregnant affect whether they would even consider doing ivf on me? The lady said she will look into it and write to us with what she finds out.

I just want to know! Obviously I am praying Pete is not a carrier. There is a one in 25 chance he can be a carrier. I don't want a baby with cf, how could I inflict this on someone else when I know whats it's like? If I can try prevent it I will, however I don't think I could abort a baby because it had cf. Afterall I still have a very good life and I am glad I am here! I was trying to think how I would feel if one of my parents had cf and had known I could get it, would I hate them? I'm not sure, I don't think I would most of the time. Maybe times when I'm feeling down or upset about my cf, I would be more inclined to be mad at them than I am, since my parent's didn't know when they had me so I can't really blame them. The other issue of course is that if I had a baby with cf they would be pretty f*cked because they would catch all my infections from birth! Not a good start to life! If Pete is a carrier then his sisters would need to be tested too as they could be, although one of Pete's sisters already has a baby and he doesn't have cf (they test all babies now) so this gives a glimpse of hope! Talk about opening a can of worms!