What is Trisomy 18?

It is a rare genetic disorder that causes serious mental impairment and birth defects.

Trisomy 18, also called Edwards syndrome, is a genetic disease correlated with abnormalities in the body. Individuals with trisomy 18 often grow slowly (intrauterine growth retardation) and has a low birth weight. Affected individuals may have heart defects and abnormalities of other organs that develop before birth. Many individuals with trisomy 18 die before birth or within their first month.  A rare amount of children with this condition who live past their first year, often have severe intellectual disability.

In a regular conception, 46 chromosomes for each cell with two of each type combined from 23 chromosomes from the father and 23 chromosomes from the mother. In each chromosome, they contain all the needed genetic information, but a trisomy will occur when a genetic problem develops when there are three chromosomes in one position instead of two.