General Chat

I'm A positive. Only found out when I was first pregnant.
I have never given blood. I find it difficult enough to go for routine blood tests so they would have to knock me out first to get a donation. They wouldn't want it either ... on too many anti-depressants !

Viv

Sue in S. Snap at AB+ :-)

Sucks when you want to give but can't.

Helen, they say that even having safe sex there's still a greater risk to gay men of contracting HIV. But they deem 'sexually active' if they've 'ever' had sex. They may have gone 20 years since they last had intercourse but it doesn't matter. Of course, the donor service deny that it's homophobic (even though the rules are less stringent for heterosexuals who have had unsafe sex) a more reasonable period would be 12 months because they can usually detect within 6 months (often less now). They deny that it's the cost of changing things that stop them from doing it too. I know several gay men who would love to donate and could too except for that one rule. So, is it morally ok for them to lie assuming that they know there's no risk of them being infected (ie that they've had a long enough clean period before)? It's an awful position that they're put in.

im rh o neg,my husband is ab pos,i had to have anti d after all of my 4children where born,two are ab pos and two b pos, before the anti d injection was discovered i would not have been able to carry my children,as my body would have rejected them ,im very happy that i can give my blood to anyone who needs it,but i must be aware that in the event that i need blood ,i can have nobody elses blood but my own rh neg.x

Interesting-we do not always appreciate how relatively recent the advances in detailed blood grouping are.

I met a lady recently who has links with my tree and I commented on the fact that her brother was born in 1930 and then a gap until her birth in 1951
She told me that there had been 5 other children in between who had not survived due to the Blood Grouping/Rhesus factors.

Very true Elizabeth, sad how many children must have been lost before.

I am still so surprised at the number of O negs on here.

You still have Blood???.Don,t let Gordon Brown Know or he,ll be after it,not a lot of people have any left now,He,s took the lot.**M**.:o)))>.

It depends Joan.

B refers to the phenotype (ie what is seen) where as the genotype (at the genetic level) could be BB or BO. Therefore if both you and your hubby were BO you could have either a B+ or O+ child although I think it would statistically be in favour of B+ (75% chance), this is because the O allele is recessive and B is dominant. AB occurs because both A & B are what are called co-dominant.

With my mum and dad, one is A the other is B. They could have any combination A, B, AB or O depending on what their base genotype are (ie if they were AO or AA, BO or BB). If they were AA and BB I think that they could have only AB children. As I recall two Rh+ parents can have only Rh+ children (but I know less about the Rhesus factor).

Thanks for the revision session, I did all this at uni in my second year...thought I'd forgotten most of it. Hope it makes sense.

I am A Rh neg. Don't know what my parents were and don't know what my children are either, I didn't have any problems when either of them were born

Ann
Glos

Im common Liz, o positive!

Caz xx

LOL Cazzles, you'll have to go to Turkey where you'll be less common PMSL

Interestingly, was just looking at a Rhesus fact sheet thing and it seems RH neg is more prevelant in Europe and western countries. Very rare in Asia. But then that's statistics and we all know how reliable they can be.

Eileen, you are not alone. I am just glad to know I have some (blood I mean!)

Claddagh, I was no good at it at school, only as an adult did I get into science geekery. I find it difficult to explain. I'll give it a go at making it more user friendly LOL.

As you know there are 4 blood groups A, B, AB and O. However there are two sets of genes that determine the blood group (one from each parent).

So, this means you have two copies of the blood group gene. And they can come in six different combinations depending on what you get from your parents: AA AO OO BB BO AB

As O is a recessive gene, the only time you'll see it as the blood group is when the two parents both pass an O pass on to their child. That means a person with an O blood group always has the genes OO (one from each parent).

The recessive O means that if one parent gives an O and the other parent gives A or B, they will have a blood group of A or B.

A person who is A can either have two A's (AA) or an A and an O (AO).

A person who is B can either have two B's (BB) or a B and an O (BO).

A person who has an AB blood group must have both an A and a B as they are what is called co-dominant (one can't exert dominance over the other - they won't give way LOL).

When you have your children, you only give one copy of the genes to your child, the other comes from your partner. So, if you are O then you can only give an O, if you are AB you could give either A or B, but with a blood group of A or B it's harder to predict because you don't know what the two genes are (they could be AA or AO, BB or BO)

So with that in mind if for example you're AA you could give only A.

But if you are AO you could give either A or O. If your partner is the same (AO), then then you could have a child that is AA or AO or OA or OO, Leaving a 1 in 4 (or 25%) chance of have an O blood grouped child and 3 in 4 (75%) chance of an A.

But, if you're A and your partner is B... and the genes are both AA and BB then you will have only AB children.

If one has an O gene (AO & BB) then you could have AB or BO so either a AB blood group or a B. (You can reverse that for AA and BO).

If you are both have an O gene and either an A or B (ie AO and AO, BO and BO, AO and BO) then you could give either an O or the dominant gene. The result is your child could be A, B, AB or O there is a 25% chance for each.

Parents
blood.........parents
group........genes:...........children's blood group
O & O......OO and OO =....O
O & A......OO and AO =.....A
O & A......OO and AA = ....A
O & B......OO and BO =....B
O & B......OO and BB = ....B
A & A......AA and AA = .....A
A & A......AO and AA = ....A
A & A......AO and AO = .....A or O
B & B......BB and BB = .....B
B & B......BO and BB = .... B
B & B......BO and BO = .....B or O
AB&AB...AB and AB = .....AB
AB&A.....AB and AA = .....A or AB
AB &A....AB and AO = ......A, B or AB
AB&B.....AB and BB = .....B or AB
AB&B.....AB and BO =.......A, B or AB
A & B......AA and BB =.....AB
A & B.....AO and BO =.......A, B, AB or O


(think that's them all LOL) Does that help any?

On top of that you can either be Rhesus D (Rh D) positive or negative and that's what the pos or neg stands for when you give your blood group.

I have a card which ive carried since pregnant with my first child in 1981 when it was discovered I had a very rare Rh-. There isnt an initial AB or O just Rh- dd. I havent a clue what this means - help am I an alien. Just got told that only 2% have this group. Whenever Ive had a baby or an op blood has been taken from me beforehand incase I need it. My husband is Rh-which helped when I was pregnant.

I'm common as muck me, O+, but that also means that more people need my blood!!

No worries Joan, that's some of the simpler genetics I had to learn, no wonder I did a physiology degree LOL.

I must correct myself though about the Rhesus D. Apparently two positive parents can have a negative child. I won't bore you with the genetics of that. But two negative parents can't have a positive child.

Thanks for your very succinct explanation SS.I have read and reread your post, but my eyes are rolling around like Cathrine wheels.It's not you but ME.All I know is that when my eldest child was born(at home), the gp said something about the Rhesus factor, my daugher was a bit yellow, but he didn't send her to hospital.Didn't explain anything either.Mind you, he was not such a great gp.Lucky I didn't know how dangerous it could be back then.

Now here is something to puzzle over Summer.

My daughters are both blood donors. My younger one has been sometimes told she is B+ and sometimes B-

She was a bit worried about this in case she ever needed blood and was given the wrong sort but has been told that she is a borderline positive/negative.

I'd never heard of that before so it's a bit weird.

Sue

I am A Pos...am I common as muck then, Liz? lol BC XX

ps....am looking for Hayley, anyone seen her???

Proper common me--O+