My mother started out with irritable bowel, then went to collitis, now has Chrons.

Is it hereditary?

We also have an aunt who died of bowel cancer (which we also have conflicting advice on whether Chrons and the bowel cancer is related).

Any advice welcome.

I've read that having a parent with Crohn's disease increases your risk slightly, but you won't necessarily get it and you can get it even if your parents don't have it.

if you have Crohn's then your risk of bowel cancer increases, so it must be somehow related.

it is hereditary. i have 2 cousins with it and i have it too.
they have found the chromosome affected that causes crohn's.

There is certainly a heriditary component to Crohn's with up to 70 % of peple with Crohn's having a relative who has it. That said, "they" also believe arthritis in the family can be a causal link too as it is an auotimmune disease and the genes for both are closely linked. I have a brother with U.C and my Mother and Father-in-law have both been sufferers with rheumatoid athritis. My son has Crohn's diagnosed at 16. I have a daughter (19) with bronchiectasis and a proven Iga deficiency. Given the causal link with Iga deficiency and diseases affecting the mucousal organs, I am sure when they finally get around to testing my boy, he too will be Iga deficient. It is only of intellectual interest however. We found that once a diagnosis of a lifelong chronic illness is made, "looking for the "why" soon takes a back seat to dealing with the now and hoping for a brighter future. Hope this has helped in some way.

my parents and my brother don't have Crohn's.
when i had my daughter i was told its about a 5% chance that she will get it

Answers.Com have the stat that if an immediate family member has Crohn's, your chances of getting it are 50 % ? This is a little strange given that only 20-25 % of people with Crohn's has an immediate family member with it. I am no statistician, but this doesn't add up to me. No wonder we are all befuddled !

I reckon! There is so much differing info out there. I was told that if one parent has it then the chances of their child having it are 7-10%.

We have friends who have chosen to be childless because he has Crohn's, his Father had Crohn's and died of bowel cancer (as did his Uncle and brother.) They sought the advice of a genetic counsellor, who advised them, that the likelihood of a child of theirs having Crohn's was at LEAST 50% !!! He is now 43 and she 39, and they will now never know as they made the choice not to take the gamble.

There is a statistically increased risk of developing bowel cancer if you have Crohn's BUT having said that, because that is known, after diagnosis (through colonoscopy/biopsy) and a period of 10 years post-diagnosis, annual colonoscopy's are recommended for this very reason. Comforting to know the link has been made and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

so everyone who has had Crohn's for 10 years is meant to have a yearly colonoscopy?

Camom i'm sorry to hear that your friend has so many close members with Crohn's. I'm sure thats why their 50% is so high if they chose to have children.
My family don't have Crohn's that closely - 1 cousin and 1 half second cousin, so i assume thats why my percentage is quite low?

I dont have yearly colonoscopies and was diagnosed 2001 - Interesting to know that info is out there tho. I do wonder why my specialist is happy to let me go without them yearly? *makes mental note to ask!*

Im sorry your friend had to make that decision Camon - What a hard and heartbreaking thing to do. Noone else that Im aware of in my family has Crohns, no diagnosis' anyway so Im thinking thats why my % is also low.

Olivia, Im sorry for your chem Preg last month hun, I will keep everything x'd for this month

thanks Roscoe

I have a question for any Crohn's sufferers re siblings ?

How many of you with a Crohn's dx have siblings with Chron's ?

My DS (dx 16) has Crohn's. His sister, now 20, is exhibiting symptoms I fear could be Crohn's or some form of IBD.

Any of you out there able to shed light on this one please ?

i have 1 brother and he doesnt have anything related to Crohn's, neither do my parents.
but i have 2 cousins who have it

Totally OT for a sec but Olivia I just saw your ticker and have tears streaming - You amazing lady - I hope nothing but a boring 9 months ahead for you and the lucky couple your helping

Camom - My Mum has always had 'upset tummies' but has never been diagnosed or been to see anyone about it. She just gets on with things and puts up with whatever it is. Neither of my Brothers or any of my family have it or anything like it.

I hope for your daughters sake its not Crohns, I will keep everything x'd

I def agree that there is some sort of genetic things in Crohns. DH has it and both his Dad (61) and his grandfather (would be over 90 if he was still with us) have/had undiognised bowel issues.
Camom - we have made the decision (for various reasons associated with his crohns)to go down the sperm donor line for kids

Hugs, NicolaS. Thank you for being so honest. I admire you for your openess.

I am positively freaking re my DD#1. I DO realise it may not be Crohn's or UC, but given what we have been through with DS for the last 3 years, and the battle I know still lies ahead for him, and for all of us, well.....need I say more. I just want the possibilty eliminated (or included so we can deal with it.)

Olivia - WOW. What an amazing person you must be. What a gift you are to those you are blessing. And blessings on you

My stepbrother has crohns and so do two of his mum's cousins. When they first diagnosed him he was really sick and had gone from weighing over 70kgs to about 45kgs (he's over 6 foot tall too). He had 6 inches of hardened bowel that had come within mms of rupturing his liver. He was very lucky he didn't die. The operation to remove that hardened bowel has been the only one he has needed so far. He has to avoid certain foods (like tomatoes, corn, grapes) and so far (15 years or more on I think) he hasn't had any real issues with it.

One of my high school friends is the youngest of 4 children. His second oldest brother was one of the first people in NZ diagnosed with crohns. He was only 13 when he was diagnosed and by the time he was in his 30s he'd already had over 30 operations to remove hardened sections of bowel. He'd be in his late 40s now (at least) and last time I saw my friend he said his brother didn't have much bowel left as most of it has been removed. It's been a while since I spoke to my friend though so I'm not sure how his brother is doing at the moment. He had the most severe case of crohns I've ever heard of.

Sadly last time I saw my friend (nearly a year ago), he said all of the siblings (himself included) have now been diagnosed with crohns. They were all in their 30s I think when it was diagnosed. That's not to say they may not have symptoms that were misdiagnosed as IBS earlier than that though. As far as I can remember he said they all manage their conditions through diet and they are doing okay.

My DH has had Chrons for 16yrs and only required one operation around 6 years ago to remove scarred tissue. His Chrons was in the join of small intestine to the large intestine. When first diagnosed he was on quite a bit of Medication but had terrible side effects with Prednisone. So meds were scaled back. Only on 1g Pentasa and 100mg Azathiprine. We have a beautiful nearly 3 year old which I hope that its not passed to her. We had lots of discussions with the GP and DH's specialist and couldn't find any reason why we couldn't have kids. They suggested DH stopped Azathioprine for a short while due to the possibility of it lowering sperm count. But he never did.
DH has colonscopys every 2 years.