Do you know your genotype? Have you made any efforts to go check if you don’t yet know your genotype? Are you in any serious romantic relationship currently? A lot of people don’t know their genotype and many of these people still don’t find it very important to go do the test to know their genotype. However, a significant number of them are in a serious relationship that can lead to marriage.
What is the link between knowing your genotype and marriage? First, it is important what genotype. Genotype which doctors refer to as haemoglobin genotype is a medical test that shows the type of haemoglobin in your red blood cells. Haemoglobin is the chemical substance that gives the red blood cells their red colour; this chemical substance is also what holds the oxygen that red blood cells supply to every part of the body from the lungs.

Haemoglobin can be normal or abnormal. In adults, the normal haemoglobin is represented as A while the abnormal one has the S or C sign. Every adult’s haemoglobin genotype is designated as a pair which represents the two copies of the gene in the DNA that gives rise to the haemoglobin. The normal haemoglobin genotype is AA or AS while the abnormal one is SS or SC.

A haemoglobin genotype of AA is very normal; that of AS is also normal. But a genotype of SS or SC is what is known as sickle cell disease. People inherit their haemoglobin genotype from both of their parents at the time of conception. A man and a woman whose genotype is AA can marry; a man who is AA can marry a woman who is SS and vice versa.

However, it is not medically advisable for a man who is AS to marry a woman who is AS, SS or SC. If this happens, the couple is very much likely to give birth to a child or children who are SS. Now, sickle cell disease is a lifelong medical condition in which the red blood cells have abnormal shapes and die very prematurely (within 30 days instead of the usual 3 months): this leads to consistent shortage of red blood cells in the body in the absence of continued medical treatment. Many people with the condition in Nigeria die before their 50s; in fact, a lot of people who are SS die in childhood or during their teenage years because of the tasking nature and cost of healthcare needed to keep them stable which many parents may not be able to afford.

Having a child with sickle cell disease is very demanding and is not something anyone would want to do intentionally. This is why it is important to know your haemoglobin genotype and once you are in any relationship always ask your partner his or her own genotype. If such a partner does not know their genotype yet encourage them to go do the test. You may never know a relationship that could lead to marriage. Knowing your genotype and that of your partner very early will direct that relationship to the right outcome when it starts heading towards marriage and therefore save both of you any lifelong stress if your genotype is not compatible for marriage.

Don’t forget you can conveniently book that lab test your doctor requested for, including the genotype test, with any of our partner labs closest to you. Just click on Swift Checkup to schedule the medical test with a lab.

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Written by Dr. Okechukwu Amako, MB;BS (Ibadan)

Tags: genotype, genotype test, haemoglobin, lab test, marriage, mobile app, relationship, sickle cell

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