There is nothing you can do about this... beating yourself up is not going to help.

Myself, I ruled out having kids but mainly that's because I don't want to be a mom....that and I don't like kids.

Saying I have FVL is just an easy way to skate over an awkward conversation... ie " What do you mean you don't want to have a family?"

I don't have kids but from a rhetorical standpoint, if I had FVL and I really wanted to have kids, I would. If I had some other known genetic disorder that would cause birth defects, make them physically or mentally disabled, then I wouldn't.

One's kids could be killed in a car accident, but that doesn't mean one doesn't let them get their license. In other words, there's many things that can happen to kids and there's only so much you can control. Life happens to all of us..

You gotta cut yourself a break here. If your kids aren't freaked out about it, then I would follow their lead. I've been going through this with my mom recently. She had breast cancer, and her mother died of ovarian cancer. My brother had cancer. Plus I have ulcerative colitis which makes me prone to colon cancer. She wanted to get genetic testing herself to see if there was a genetic issue causing this. She said she wanted to do it for us kids so we can be as preventive as possible. We told her to not bother. Me or my siblings spend too many moments worrying about what may happen.

I see your point for sure. It's just that my kids and the rest of my siblings aren't worried about it much because they have never had DVT's and I hope to god they don't. It's just I wouldn't wish this daily pain and worry on anyone.
I am sorry for your family's battles with cancer - that sucks. Both my parents have had colon cancer too so I know it is no picnic!

Thanks. We've had some rough times with the Big C. What can you do though? You get your regular screenings and just keep looking forward.

I think it's healthy that your kids and siblings aren't overly concerned. All they need to really be is informed which they are. You put it out there, and what they want to do with the info is on them. But I know that's hard.

I had two daughters before I found out about the FVL...Had I known before I might have adopted instead of passing this on. As it is, one of my daughters got lucky and tested negative, the other has FVL and MTHFR just like me. She still wants to have her own kids, and I support her with this.

This is a very personal decision.

With adoption you wouldn't know what the kids had either. Tough decision.

If we had perfect knowledge of everything, we'd be too scared to do anything.

I also don't have kids ,and my husband and I were not planning to have any, but we had left the door open in case something changed and we decided we wanted kids.

I had my DVT / PE last year at age 43. I also found out that I had FVL. This helped explain the "why me" question.

We are now making the permanent decision to not have kids. This isn't really because of my knowledge of FVL. It's mostly the decision that we had already made, coupled with my age and my history with clotting. It's just more than we think we could handle.

I think if we were younger and wanting to start a family in the first place, I wouldn't shy away from having children. My family medical history of lung cancer, skin cancer and liver transplant...not to mention high cholesterol and migraines would probably be more of a concern than FVL.

I feel like blood clots can be prevented or recognized early if you know that you are at a higher risk to begin with.

Most definitely. The thing with FVL is that a majority of the people live a normal life and never know they have it. I am heterozygous, so one of my parents has the mutated gene, and neither of them have ever had a clot. Ironically, they are both fairly sedentary and unhealthy, too. Why have they never clotted!?! Usually for heterozygous FVL, there are other factors, even if undetected. For me, it was a quick car trip. When my girls are older, I will have them tested. I do feel like they should stay away from certain BC types if they are positive.