Thalassemia Minor

I have always known my friend Paula and her family had a low grade anemia, well that anemia has a name and it is Thalassemia minor. If is kinda like sickle-cell anemia, meaning as long as both partners do not have the trait, then it is not expressed as full blown Thalassemia major. However, even carriers of the trait have a chronic low grade anemia. To my friend Paula and her family it means very little in their everyday life. However, when it comes to egg donation, it becomes a very big deal.

The risks are too great according to my clinic staff and they have excluded Alizsha as a donor because of it. Sigh! My friend Paula reminded me of the condition when I spoke to her on the phone late last week and so I did some research over the weekend and then emailed my clinic this morning.

On a positive note, we have not seen Alizsha since her Mom's wedding in 2004, so I will be happy to have her come visit. If her Mom and baby sister can come as well, we can make it a mother daughter weekend and perhaps take a little road trip.

Back to the fertility issues, we are back to square one. We picked out an anonymous donor before we thought about Alizsha, she is still available and we are likely to use her. She was a previous donor with 3 donations and 3 successful pregnancies. She is only 22 years old as well. In her profile she says she wants to return to college and become a nurse and one day maybe even an Oncologist. Well maybe that is a sign, given that I am an Oncology nurse as well.

I know I should be thankful we have a back up plan, but I am a little disappointed. Let's see how everything plays out!

Theresa