Sickle Cell Anemia Center Provides Reliable Genetic Counseling and Testing

The pediatric sickle cell team at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital’s Angie Fowler Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Institute in Cleveland, Ohio provides reliable genetic counseling and testing.

Because sickle cell disease is the most common genetic disorder in the U.S., it is extremely important that patients and families are offered testing and counseling for both sickle cell trait and sickle cell disease.

Reviewing Family History

Our genetics counselor meets with families in the first year after diagnosis to review with parents the inheritance of sickle cell disease and the chances of having other children with sickle cell disease. At this time, family history is also reviewed.

Once patients with sickle cell disease reach adolescence, our genetics counselor meets with them again to provide education and to explain their chances of having a child with sickle cell disease.