Diabetes and the Hereditary factor

[amandalaq]

Hello,

I am 21yrs old and I am dating someone who is 22. We have Diabietes type 1 on both sides of our family tree. My Aunt and Uncle have it and His father has it.
1) My question to you is what is the risk of us getting married and passing Diabetes to our children. Could you explain how this works?
2)I know how the virus works but what about the added risk of having it on both sides?
3)Is it true that it Skips a Generation?
4)I have heard from the American Diabietes Asso. That "The majority of people who develop type 1 diabetes have no history of diabetes in their family.Researchers in diabetes are working to discover what environmental factors, when combined with a genetic predisposition, might begin the chain of events that leads to diabetes. No one has found conclusive results yet."
Or that

[gentgeen]

There are some very specific, relativly rare, forms of diabetes known as Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY) that are known to have genetic causes. There are six identified types of MODY, each linked to a specific genetic mutation which is autosomal dominant, meaning a child of someone with MODY will have a 50% chance of inheriting the disease.

I don't want to scare anyone, as the incidence of these forms of diabetes is very low, perhaps less than 5% of those diagnosed have a form of MODY. But there are tests for the gene mutations wich cause it which would tell you if you or your boyfriend carry one of them. Whatever the results, the information would help you make any decisions about starting a family.

[JDRF-Team-JW]

I am not a medical professional but I have had Type I Diabetes for 11 years now. I was diagnosed at the age of 18 and it came as a complete shock since no one in my family had any type of diabetes. The only one I knew of was my great-grandmother who developed diabetes late in life and was put on insulin at the time. So it doesn't look like Type I Diabetes is hereditary, although that is what I read when I was first diagnosed. However in recent years I've been seeing more and more articles stating that it's Type 2 diabetes that is more likely to be passed on. Most of the Type I Diabetics I know do not have diabetes running in the family. I don't believe you will be putting your children at risk if you and your boyfriend decide to start a family but I don't have the medical knowledge to assure you of that. Your best bet is to check with a diabetes professional like an endocrinologist or even an OB/Gyn who specializes in diabetic pregnancies -they can probably come up with some statistics that would be helpful to you in making that decision. Unless there is a very good chance that your children will be diabetic I don't think you need to worry about it too much -most of the time these things are out of our hands. If your children are supposed to be diabetic they will be regardless of whether or not anyone else in the family is, and if it's not mean to be -they'll avoid it even if everyone else related to them is diabetic. I understand you would not want to put your children at risk and I think that's very responsible and caring (I worry about that too sometimes -not having children yet myself and being diabetic)but also remember that having diabetes is not the end of the world and people live with it just fine :) I wish you all the best!

[JDRF-Team-aj]

HI Amada,
First let me thank you for posting on the JDRF message board and also commend you for doing your research.  I do have to let you know we are all volunteers here and cannot in any way give you any medical advice.  I happen to be