Can my child inherit my macular degeneration?
JAN 14, 2015
Question:
If a person has macular degeneration disease at the age of 26, is there a risk of his newborn child getting the same disease at an early age? The baby is 2 months old.
Answer:
Macular degeneration is a broad diagnosis and includes a wide variety of conditions that affect your central retina (back of your eye). An individual with a type of macular degeneration that is diagnosed at a younger age is more likely to have a genetic or heritable cause (as opposed to AMD or age-related macular degeneration). The risk of passing this on to a child is dependent on the diagnosis and type of genetic inheritance for the specific condition. I encourage the patient to talk with their retina specialist to get a more specific diagnosis and then to ask about the genetic risk.