Genetic counselling is required in all below scenarios:
- There is a family history of genetic disease
- Having a child with a problem which may have a genetic cause
- Already having a child with genetic disorder and planning for next baby
- Risk assessment for individuals with a family history of cancer. Example: Breast cancer at an younger age in the family
- Genetic report interpretation
Genetic counselling is required for:
- Individuals who are planning to get married, specially those going for a consanguineous marriage
- Couples planning pregnancy – those with primary infertility, secondary infertility
- Women with repeated abortions / stillbirths
- Couple who are anxious about the well being of their unborn child
- Individuals on long term treatment eg: epilepsy, tuberculosis, transplant rejection. asthma, atherosclerosis etc
- Individuals planning to go in for IVF and PGD
- Individuals interested in knowing their predisposition to common diseases eg: diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases
- Individuals wanting to know the response to specific drug therapies eg: anti acidity drugs, clopidogrel, warfarin etc
- Individuals interested in knowing about their genetic make up for addictive chemicals like caffeine, alcohol, nicotine etc
- Individuals who want opinion about their type of cancer and molecular basis for their treatment and prognosis
- Companies offering genetic and genomic tests