Marriage and child bearing in patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia major.
AIM
With good care, patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia major (TDTM) can reach older ages, marry and reproduce. This study was conducted by the Thalassemia Research Center.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
Medical notes of all TDTM patients and all non-transfusion-dependent thalassemia major (NTDTM) patients were reviewed from July to December 2012. Also, patients were interviewed. The questionnaire was made in consultation with research methodology experts and reliability was achieved by a pilot study of 12 patients, by the test-retest method (r = 0.9). Epidemiologic characteristics of patients and the pregnancy outcomes were recorded. Descriptive statistics were used with SPSS 17.


RESULTS
Four hundred and nineteen medical records were reviewed. Three hundred and forty-five (82.5%) were TDTM. One hundred and seventy-five (50.7%) were female with a mean age of 25.4 ± 7.05 years and 42 (25%) had been married. Mean age of menarche and marriage was 15.4 ± 1.6 and 21.8 ± 4.5 years, respectively. Total number of live children is nine so far. Mode of delivery in female patients was cesarean section. Almost 78% of newborns weighed 2500-4000 g. Almost 22% of pregnancies were assisted. Male patients consisted of 170 (49.3%) and 55 (32.3%) of them had been married. Mean age at marriage was 24.27 ± 3.5 years.


CONCLUSIONS
With better management, patients with TDTM can reach the age of reproduction. Medical teams should be prepared for this possibility.
['Zafari|Mandana|M|', 'Kosaryan|Mehrnoush|M|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D001803:Blood Transfusion D002585:Cesarean Section D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007247:Infertility, Female D007248:Infertility, Male D007492:Iran D008297:Male D008393:Marriage D011247:Pregnancy D011250:Pregnancy Complications, Hematologic D011256:Pregnancy Outcome D047928:Premature Birth D015995:Prevalence D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted D012189:Retrospective Studies D055815:Young Adult D017086:beta-Thalassemia
transfusion-dependent thalassemia major thalassemia pregnancy fertility infertility