Reproductive planning after genetic counselling: a perspective from the last decade |
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Authors: | Petra G. Frets Martinus F. Niermeijer |
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Affiliation: | Department of Clinical Genetics, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. |
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Abstract: | Studies from the last decade on factors influencing reproductive planning after genetic counselling were reviewed. Increased possibilities of DNA-analysis and prenatal diagnosis might have brought about a shift in the paramountcy of factors influencing reproductive planning after genetic counselling. In contrast to the literature in the seventies, the magnitude of the genetic risk was no longer found to be one of the decisive factors in postcounselling reproductive planning. Instead, the interpretation of the risk as high or low and the desire to have children appeared to be paramount. The impact of new developments in DNA-analysis in prenatal diagnosis and presymptomatic testing will be an important subject for future studies on factors influencing reproductive planning. |
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Keywords: | decision-making family planning follow-up genetic counselling prenatal diagnosis recurrence risk reproductive planning reproductive uncertainty risk interpretation |
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