Genetic Testing for OffSpring Mental Health..Is it possible??

[Rose2]

Hi there, I am new to the forum. I came searching for information about Genetic testing. I am new to this whole topic. Please help.

I am 24 years old. A guy proposed to marry me. The thing is, he is my second cousin. I heard/read about the discouragement for cousin marriages by some experts. I am kindda worried, and until this day, I did not accept or decline the guy's proposal. I don't know what to do. What I know is that I want to do the right thing which will benefit everyone (specifically speaking, the offspring).

 

My parents are first cousins. I have 2 sisters who don't have the best mental health condition; without going into lots of details about my sisters' mental health condition...but just to say it in general, depression is there, anti social to the extreme, illusion/imagining stuff

really upsets me. I believe this is due to my parents marrying - being first cousins (My dad's mother is my mum's father's sisters. In other words, My grandmother from my dad's side is the sister of my grandfather from my mother's side). I might be wrong though for the cause to their condition because my parents never went through genetic testing.

 

Now with me and this guy proposing, I don't know how healthy will that be on the offspring since he is related to me:

- his mum is my mum's first cousin. His mum is also my dad's first cousin. In other words, his grandmother from his mother's side is the sister of my grandfather from my mum's side and also the sister of my grandmother from my dad's side.

 

I am worried! Are we too close? I see my two sister who don't have the best mental health, and just want to do the right thing for the benefit of the next generation. Will genetic testing be helpful in my case before deciding to marry? how helpfu? how accurate? I don't know what sort of testing is available, genetically out there, but is it possible to have test result that can give you an overview of having offsprings being mentally healthy???? What sort of genetic tests is available anyways?

 

Please help!

Edited April 29, 2011 by Rose2

[Stefan-CoA]

I'd counsel against marrying him.

 

As far as I know, in utero testing (when the foetus is still in the womb) isn't commercially available yet. But you should be able to go to a company (or send your blood off) where they can perform tests as to which of you is carrying identified markers for mental issues. BUT, development of the brain, from a genetic perspective, is a very complex thing and chances are that the tests won't be all too conclusive. So like I said, if you can avoid it, please do so. Even if they don't end up with mental issues there are a host of other problems that can crop up; muscular dystrophies, developmental abnormalities, stunted growth, the list goes on. Rather get someone from outside of your family first to introduce some genetic variation again, then, further down the line if your son or daughter want to marry their cousins it won't be too severe. But for you, unfortunately I don't think it'd be the best decision.

 

Hope it helped

Edited April 29, 2011 by Stefan-CoA

[Marat]

Inbreeding is not such a significant risk as some make it out to be. The Egyptian royal family, for example, was obligated to maintain the royal blood line's purity by having brothers marry their sisters in each successive generation, generation after generation, and yet by the end of it Cleopatra still seemed not only normal, having a sufficiently high IQ to manage the complex politics of her era, but was also attractive, albeit by the standards of her time, when a nose hooked down over the upper lip was evidently acceptable, at least to Mark Anthony.

 

Inbreeding really only becomes significant when there are specific diseases in play. Thus a type 1 diabetic male has a 7% chance of diabetic offspring, while a type 1 diabetic female has a 4% of diabetic offspring, but if the two marry each other, the chance rises to 25%. The fact that monozygotic twins are only 50% concordant for type 1 diabetes shows what a large impact environment can have on the expression of many genetic predispositions.