Premarital Screening

Medical Service Name – Premarital Screening and Check-up

Marriage is a cornerstone in the development of emotional, social, and cultural support. Healthy marriages ensure that family members are protected from inherited and infectious diseases, resulting in a happy and stable family.

A healthy marriage is characterized as a state of agreement and harmony between the spouses regarding physical, psychological, sexual, societal, and legal issues. This ensures the goal of creating a stable family and producing healthy children.

Couples should be educated through premarital testing programs that provide reliable and unbiased information. Family history, inherited variables, age, nutrition, exercise, weight control, and addictions are all elements that influence the overall picture.

Cultural variables such as the high incidence of consanguineous marriages (more than 55 percent), big family sizes, and high paternal and maternal ages may have contributed to the high prevalence of sickle-cell disease and β -thalassemia in Middle Eastern region.

To safeguard the transmission of illness to children of affected couples, the UAE Government had mandated Premarital Screening in April 2011.

What is Premarital Screening?

Premarital screening involves evaluating couples expecting to marry soon for common hereditary blood disorders (such as sickle cell anemia and thalassemia) and infectious illnesses (such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS).

Premarital genetic disease screening is preferable to neonatal congenital disease screening because the former is primary prevention and the latter is secondary or tertiary prevention. By limiting the number of high-risk couples, premarital screening may help to minimize the burden of hereditary hemoglobin disorders.

Premarital screening differs by location, based on the incidence of illnesses in that area.

Significance of Premarital Screening

• Determine whether the future bride and groom are in good health.
• Diagnose infectious illnesses such as hepatitis B, HIV, HCV, and other sexually transmitted infections.
• To determine the risk of having children with a severe illness, identify carriers of genetic diseases. The couple can then decide whether or not to have a kid with the condition.

Screening Options at 7DMC

Couples should be tested to assist them in understanding their genetics and take the appropriate precautions or treatments.

We at 7DMC have the world-class technologies in place to provide the best results for couples in need.

The following are part of a premarital screening test at 7DMC:

• A complete blood count (CBC)
• Blood type (ABO & Rh typing)
• Testing for Hb Variants (Thalassemia, Sickle cell)
• G6PD
• STIs (sexually transmitted infections)
• HIV
• Hepatitis B
• Hepatitis C
• Syphilis
• Other STDs (such as Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, and so on)

Other types of testing might include:

• Male and Female Fertility Test
• Karyotyping