Why do pregnant women need to do the six tests for thalassemia?

Generally speaking, if both husband and wife are carriers of the same type of thalassemia gene, their children have a 25% chance of being normal, a 50% chance of being carriers of the thalassemia gene, and another 25% chance of being patients with severe thalassemia. Therefore, pregnant women should generally undergo screening tests for thalassemia after becoming pregnant. This is also for the sake of your family and baby, and pregnant women should actively cooperate.

The mental and financial burden that children with severe thalassemia bring to their families is unbearable. Severe α-thalassemia usually causes fetal stillbirth or death after birth. The impact of severe β-thalassemia is even more severe. Infants with this disease usually develop the disease within three to six months after birth and require long-term blood transfusions and injections of iron-removing drugs, with high monthly treatment costs. The children eventually often die from excessive iron load caused by long-term blood transfusions, and the mental and financial burden caused by this is even more long-term.

There is currently no cure for thalassemia. To prevent this disease, pregnant women and their spouses should undergo premarital examinations and prenatal genetic diagnosis to avoid giving birth to the next generation of children with thalassemia.

Can thalassemia in pregnant women be cured?

Thalassemia is mainly treated with prevention. Mild asymptomatic cases do not require treatment, while severe thalassemia requires hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Without hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, patients can only rely on blood transfusions and long-term use of iron-removing agents to maintain life. Iron-removing agents must be used at the same time. Even so, long-term blood transfusions will cause more and more iron to be deposited in organs such as the liver and spleen, causing these organs to fail and leading to the patient's death. In addition, hematopoietic liver cell transplantation also carries considerable risks.

Pregnant women with severe thalassemia should pay special attention. If examination confirms that the fetus has severe thalassemia, it is best to perform an artificial abortion and terminate the pregnancy. If the test results show that the fetus' genes are normal or that it has mild thalassemia, you can continue the pregnancy and give birth with peace of mind.

If your child is diagnosed with thalassemia, it is best to have an artificial abortion and terminate the pregnancy, because the child may die in the womb, which is a great threat to the pregnant woman. Even if the child is born, it cannot be cured. Pregnant women should pay attention to check whether their bodies are normal during the pregnancy preparation stage, so as to ensure that your child can be healthy.