2009 National DNA Day Online Chatroom Transcript
This is just one question from an archive of the National DNA Day Moderated Chat held in April 2009. The NHGRI Director and many genomics experts from across NHGRI took questions from students, teachers and the general public on topics ranging from basic genomic research, to the genetic basis of disease, to ethical questions about genetic privacy.
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why do they say that it is dangerous for older women to have children?
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Janice Berliner, M.S., C.G.C.:
I am a cancer genetic counselor, performing genetic risk assessment and counseling for cancer patients and those at risk for cancer.
In general, it's because girls/women are born with all the eggs they'll ever have, and therefore the older you are, the older your eggs are. That makes them more vulnerable to damage. What increases in risk as we age is the probability for chromosome abnormalities such as Down syndrome (there are many others). Most birth defects and other types of problems, whether it's mental retardation, autism, cerebral palsy, metabolic disorders, whatever, are not functions of the mother's age. They also cannot generally be detected using prenatal diagnostic techniques the way that chromosome abnormalities can. |
| Trafalgar School For Girls (10th grade student) |
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