With everything that goes into planning a wedding, couples probably are not thinking about being screened for Jewish genetic diseases.
One in five individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish descent is a carrier for one of several diseases that can cause a devastating illness in a child of a couple who are both carriers. Tay-Sachs is the best known fo these diseases, but there are at least 11 others, including Canavan disease and Bloom syndrome.
“Taking time for a quick blood test to screen for these diseases can give you peace of mind,” says Dr. Adele Schneider, director of Medical Genetics at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia. “So we encourage young couples to add this simple blood test to their wedding ‘To Do’ list.”
Getting screened early offers more reproductive options to couples for having healthy children. It also means that decisions can be made in a more relaxed way, rather than under extremely stressful circumstances as often happens during pregnancy.
Although a person is healthy, there could be a long history of carriers in a family that no one knows about. It’s recommended that even if a person’s parents were tested and found not to be carriers, their children should still be tested.