Question about bloodwork before TTC

This weekend I was stuck at home with a horrible cold so I was watching the Miami Ink show on TLC...one of the guys getting a tattoo had a daughter with Tay-Sachs Disease. So long story short, this got me thinking...before TTC, do most people get bloodwork taken to see if they have any problems like this? Where do you go - the GYN or a regular MD?

Re: Question about bloodwork before TTC

My Re did a complete blood work. i went to a quest lab with 2 pages of diff. blood work he wanted done. He did genetic testing as well as the regular day 3 tests. I'm not sure everyone does this but I had gone to him after an ectopic pregnancy and he just wanted to make sure nothing was seriously wrong

Re: Question about bloodwork before TTC

I'm already pregnant and going for genetic testing next week b/c my husband is Jewish and there are certain defects (Tay-sachs being one) that Ashkanazi Jews are more likely to carry the chromosome for. I think they only send you if you fall in to a "high risk" group -- either because of ethnic background or family history.

Re: Question about bloodwork before TTC

My OB-GYN took a complete blood work up of me when i went in for my annual last year and told her DH and I were going to start TTC. There was a false positive that came back and i had to get more done at my regular doctor but everything came back normal.

However, they did not test for genetic diseases, just to make sure all was well with me (no STD, WBC, Rhemutoid Factor, etc) to carry a baby.

Also, after i found out i was pregnant, my OB-GYN did a whole work up on me and asked me a ton of family questions. They also test you for two genetic diseases very early in your pregnancy. One was for lupus...i don't recall what the other was.

Re: Question about bloodwork before TTC

I did all this bloodwork with my RE before they do IVF.