MS hereditary?

[pennstater]

I am the only one in my family, including extended family. However, we do have a host of other auto-immune disorders, which are hereditary: celiac disease, ulcerative colitis, Chron's, rheumatoid arthritis, etc... Sounds like a doomed gene pool

The one thing you may want to consider before your son does go to a doctor for anything or gets tested is LTD policy and/or long-term care. These are things that will be difficult to get once he seeks treatment, as they are subject to pre-existing condition exclusions. So once he goes to one doctor and discusses it and/or tests are ordered, very difficult to get the insurance. Hopefully he never needs it, but reassuring if he ever does.

Lots of luck to you and your son.

[anneth121]

Have worried for years about my adult children, especially my daughter. Asked her several years ago about getting an MRI. She said if her insurance co got wind of the MRI or if she asked for pre-auth of the test they would drop her in a second.

Remember years ago when women wanted mammagrams at an early age because of family cancer and insurance dropped them too.

I'm scared.

[ostadkourosh]

This is a very difficult topic to approach. I am a physician and have to make decisions and communicate such things to patients on a daily basis. It is a hard question to answer what to say to him. I would say it varies person by person. I would personally consider letting him know that if in fact he may have early MS, although it is difficult to face the issue now, he will likely do much better in the long run with prevention. And he in fact does not, the it will remove the worry in the back of his mind that he will have to think about on a daily basis. Hope this helps and I am sorry you have to deal with such a difficult situation. As you know there is more chances of getting MS if you have a family history but it is still not a very high possibility. In the case of your son, I think the issue is just to find a way to get him to get tested by a neurologist.

[loopey]

My mother had MS and when I asked her Dr. (years ago) if it was hereditary he said no. Now I have MS and I have 2 sons who show some signs of it.

They feel it isn't serious enough for them to get MRI's (they don't have good insurance yet) and I can't stand stress anymore so I am butting out for now. We all know the signs can be deceiving so I don't want to get all worked up yet!

[Tawanda]

My mother had MS and when I asked her Dr. (years ago) if it was hereditary he said no. Now I have MS and I have 2 sons who show some signs of it.

They feel it isn't serious enough for them to get MRI's (they don't have good insurance yet) and I can't stand stress anymore so I am butting out for now. We all know the signs can be deceiving so I don't want to get all worked up yet!

My mother had a very progressive version of M.S. When my father asked if us kids could inherit the disease, the doctor said no. This was the 60s. I have MS, and 3 cousins do, too. 2 out of the 4 of us decided on no kids. Had I not already had one, I honestly would not have had one after being diagnosed with MS. I know this is a controversial opinion on this board, but to see my DD go through this horror show is inconceivable. Apparently there are those persons with MS "Light" who would obviously feel differently, but the MS entity in my family has been a nightmare you don't wake up from.