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I am writing this to find out everyone's opinion on how important they feel family medical history is. I am 40 now and thought it might be a good idea to try to obtain this info from my birth parents. I have never had any serious ailments and seem to be healthier than anyone I know. I do my recommended checkups every year. My mom & one of my doctors felt that was really all I needed and not to worry about it. I guess I am looking for opinions from others:
Did you end up with a serious illness that could have been prevented had you had your family medical history?
Did you find out something in your family medical history that helped you prevent an illness from occurring?
Did your doctor take any special precautions or tests once you found out something ran in your family?
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Copperhead, my son is your age, and having access to my medical history, as well as that of my parents and siblings, has resulted in his doctor taking preventative measures in order to stave off early heart disease. My son was placed on the statins to lower his cholesterol levels when he was in his early 30's. His LDL was still fairly normal at that time, but his HDL was way too low, just like mine is. When he told his physicians that there is a family history of early heart disease, they decided that an ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure.
I get so frustrated sometimes at how so many adoptees don't have any access to their own family medical histories. Although most mothers of the Baby Scoop Era provided medical histories to the adoption agencies at the time of surrender, those histories were usually provided by very young women who hadn't encountered any serious health problems...yet. But that easily changes over time.
Personally, I'd like to see the laws change in this one regard. Now that we know the importance of heredity when it comes to things like health and illness, I believe we should require all parents who place their children for adoption to provide updated medical histories every five years or so.
I have always been healthy as well and I never really thought about getting it, but once I did, it just felt "complete" knowing everything. It's almost like it reassures me that nothing major is out there.
Now my brother...he was also adopted (we had different birth parents). His medical past was littered with mental and physical illness that our parents knew nothing about. It was only when he became a teenager that they could tell something was not right with him. They had his records unsealed by the court system and were shocked to see everything that had not been disclosed. They got him help but he is disabled to the point that he lives in an assisted living facility for the mentally disabled. Had they known earlier, maybe it could have helped, maybe not, but at least knowing about it could have made the situation different.
Although I knew that I was generally healthy, there are lots of things out there that can be carried, or can skip generations. I love the fact that my history is no longer unknown. Good luck!