This might as well be a pandemic!
At first when I saw people complain about how they were not compatible with their partner blood genotype-wise, I always thought it was a “them problem”. I was barely in my teenage years and I didn’t have a reason to bother myself with the woes of getting a long-term partner. Heck the thought of marriage, or even dating, scared the crap out of me.
But life went on - is going on - and I’m way older now. I am beginning to see the relevance and necessity of busying myself with knowledge about relationships and the processes involved in getting a good partner.
I had a relationship based conversation with my mum the other day and the issue of blood genotype came up. Before I could even contribute my two cents to the topic, she shouted “It’s AA or nothing! “. I mean I agreed with her but I wasn’t aware of how strongly her stance on it was.
If you are confused about what exactly I’m yapping on about, stay tuned as I dissect the inconvenience and necessity that is Blood Genotype Compatibility!
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Brief Explanation
Basically the human blood can be classified according to the blood groups and blood genotypes. There are four types of blood groups; A, B, AB and O. For the sake of this write-up, we don’t need to familiarize ourselves with them. We are more concerned with the genotypes.
The blood genotype indicates the type of protein (Hemoglobin) that is present in your red blood cells. There are five genotypes; AA, AS, AC, SS and SC. Some sources will beg to differ. The genotypes are inherited from our parents. Individuals with blood genotypes SS and SC are said to possess sickle cell disease while those with AS have the sickle cell trait, meaning they don’t have the sickle cell disease but they can pass it on to their offspring.
It is crucial that we are aware and conscious of our genotype mainly so that we prevent the continuation of sickle cell disease.
Sickle cell disease is an inheritable disease which causes the otherwise biconcave red blood cells to be sickle shaped. This results in a condition where the cells carry less oxygen thereby blocking the normal flow of blood to other parts of the body.
Why is this disease dreaded to the point that it is pushed to be prevented and eradicated?.
Well because the most common and prominent symptom is BONE PAIN CRISIS. The pain gets so severe that they wish they were never born and have to live routinely on pain-killers.
And we haven’t even talked about the not so high life expectancy rates that exist among them.
So how do we prevent it?
Easy!. No two individuals with the sickle cell trait can be together. So by implication, every genotype apart from AA has to marry, or procreate with, an AA genotype.
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Now, I have an AS blood genotype. This means if I’m ever going to get married, my partner has to be AA hence the reason my mum made that statement.
The technicalities of it all didn’t mean anything to me when I met an angel sent from heaven packaged into a fine young man. 😅
I had gone to stay with my friend for a while and I got introduced to her neighbor. Something just drew me to him and vice versa. We had both just gotten out of relationships and weren’t looking for commitment. That made it easy for us to connect without any pressure.
We clicked and became very close. We would stay up late at night for hours talking about very random things. We loved to get deep and overthink about the most trivial things. Our personalities blended so seamlessly it was harmonious. We would make each other laugh so hard our bellies would ache. Everything felt different, It felt just right!
We went on dates and danced. Had the time of our lives, and every moment we shared together, I would ask myself “where have you been my whole life?🙂”. He was hands down the best soul I had ever been with. The perfect gentleman. He still is.
I was not exactly looking for a spouse but if I were to choose who I would love to do life with, it would absolutely be him. He was it for me, or so I thought…
All this went on for three months till a fateful Tuesday afternoon. We were on the phone with each other talking, and he proceeded to casually ask me the question that changed the trajectory of our relationship.
“... by the way what is your blood genotype?”
We found out that we weren’t compatible as we were both AS. Our relationship flashed before our very eyes and we realized in that moment what a waste it had all been. For nothing! I bawled my eyes out. We had to disentangle our emotions and basically break up. It was the worst feeling in the world: finally finding your other half and not being able to be together because of something out of your control.
After that experience I swore to ask the very necessary question to every potential partner before anything happens.
I hope you do too!
This is really awesome ❣️. I have seen friends who are a perfect match for each parting ways and when I ask, I get the "we are not compatible" reply. Seriously, it's heart breaking losing someone you share a strong connection with because of genotype. But I bet you, it's the best thing ever. It saves the unborn children from stress of being on drugs everyday. It even saves the parents from heartache as most parents with sickle cell child (ren) are so scared of waking up to a corpse at any time
Well said
Just like you said, genotype is a critical issue we need to look into before any commitments in a relationship