Magdalena Kegel reports on huntingtonsdiseasenews.com that new research from University Hospital Pitié-Salpêtrière at Sorbonne University, France indicates that couples at risk of transmitting Huntington’s disease to their children need more psychological support before pre-natal testing of the embryo’s genetic status, and additional counseling should they choose to reproduce again.
In practice, about 5-25% of men and women at risk for having Huntington’s opt for prenatal testing. Among those who know they carry the mutation, only 10-22 percent ask for the testing.
For the study, in addition to exploring how prenatal testing affects future choices and family structure, researchers explored how often children born after testing are informed of their genetic status.