Genetic Risk Factors and Bladder Exstrophy

You know, sometimes we'll have families that will come to us or individuals affected with bladder atrophy and say, what is the risk of me transferring this condition to my children? And, uh, we don't fully understand the pattern of inheritance of bladder atrophy. We know it's not typical Mendelian, which means it's not directly transmitted from parent to child. Um, it is a sporadic event, um, happens in about 1 in 30,000 pregnancies, and we know that the only known risk factor right now is consanguinity, which is. Marrying within closely uh close relatives. And, um, other than that, there is really no identified risk factor. There are a number of studies looking at the underlying genetics of bladder atrophy, but they to date have not shed any real risk factors. So, uh, we have families who've had one child with bladder atrophy and have gone on to have other healthy children. We have a couple, both the husband and wife, both had bladder atrophy, and they have had a normal, healthy baby. So, all of these, um, concerns are very appropriate, but we want to reassure you that the passing on this condition to offspring is very, very, very rare.