If I Have Asthma, Will My Child Get Asthma?

— -- Question:If I have asthma, will my child get asthma?

Answer: It's not a 100 percent that your child will get asthma if you have asthma. However, the chances are great; it's probably somewhere between 50 and 65 percent if both parents have asthma. And in fact that predisposition of passing asthma onto your kids is greater if you are female than it is a male.

So it's not an absolute that you'll pass asthma onto your children, but it's greater than or equal to the flip of a coin that the child will get asthma if both spouses do.

Also, it seems the environment is very important, and twin studies have shown that some people with the same genotypes, such as identical twins, raised in a different environment, may not get asthma. So not only is the genetics important, but also your exposures in your environment.

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