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hereditary vitiligo - experiences with yourself and now your children?

Posted by Jessica on May 18, 2013 at 1:02am in Main

Hi guys, 

I wanted to start a discussion about the hereditary links with vitiligo. I myself am certain of the link due to my grandfather having vit. But why did my mother not get this, or my sister? Is this a general pattern for vit to skip a generation? Why was I so unlucky that I got the gene and no one else in my family? Mine occured around age five, yet my grandfather didnt have it until old age....

I have concerns now that if I start a family myself that my children will inherit this, would love to hear any experiences of others whether their children also developed vit. Just to know how common it is to pass it onto children. 

thanks, Jess 

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Replies

  • Shyeasha Ayala August 26, 2013 at 12:28pm
    Lupus runs rampant in my family. At least one person in each generation of my family has it. My mother has vit and her sister has lupus. So that actually does make sense how autoimmune diseases can go hand in hand. When I first got diagnosed I went in knowing it was either vit or lupus but was praying it wasn't the latter. I've witnessed all the treatments such as pills to even chemo that my aunt had to endure. So I was quite relieved it was vitiligo. I am one of 3 daughters and the only one to have been diagnosed.

    As far as children, I feel as long as you can overcome any insecurities you have towards vitiligo it will help you future children handle it IF it happens to them. Unfortunately, it's genetic roulette.
  • Tawny August 26, 2013 at 9:02am

    Hi Jessica, 

    I don't know that vitiligo itself is necessarily genetic. However, autoimmune disease is genetic...just like Barbara said. If you have family members with other autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid, Hashimoto's, Lupus, etc.) then it's just a matter of which one you will get, since all autoimmune disease stem from the same place, your gut.

    So even though your sisters may not have vitiligo, they may carry an autoimmune gene and could turn up with a different autoimmune disease in the future. Make sense?

    Its confusing because each autoimmune disease has a different name, but really they are so closely related and intertwined. In fact it's not uncommon for a person to develop more than one autoimmune disease at the same time. 

  • Hannah Dalton August 25, 2013 at 11:06pm
    I got vitilgo due to my mum and brother having type one diabetes, which is auto immune. I didn't inherit diabetes but instead I got vitilgo, genes work in funny ways.
  • Barbara Pask August 25, 2013 at 1:50pm

    I do not know of anyone in my family that had vitiligo and I met my great grandmother on one side and all of my grandparents. However autoimmune diseases do seem to run my family on my mothers side, she having rhumetoid arthritis and several other people having other things. I started getting white spots at about 50 and will be 60 soon and it has progressed like crazy since it began. I also have Hosimotos, a autoimmune disease where you attack your thyroid. I pray these are the only 2 that I get as there are terrible ones such as lupus and rheumotoid arthritis. I would fee terrible if my daughter or grandson ends up with this.

  • dennis guzman August 25, 2013 at 9:34am

    My dad has it on his finger tips,but it never grew from their.He works all day in the sun and he thinks thats why it never grew.

  • Jill Casteel August 24, 2013 at 1:16pm

    I'm 52 and have had it all my life.  No one else in my family has it.  I have 2 kids and they don't have it.

  • Tina May 26, 2013 at 11:04am

    I honestly don't know where this came from, nobody in my family has ever had it that I know of anyway.....nobody has ever dealt with this, and thank God they haven't had to....it is really just the worst, awful....and nobody in my family understands or even believes that this is what I deal with and have been for a few years now....please trust I am grateful my case is not as bad as many others, and what they have to deal with, but it's pretty hard just the same.  I don't know or think my family could deal with this if it were THEM dealing with it, every single day and having to look in the mirror and know it is THERE all the time...:(  None of them believe this is what I am dealing with but I KNOW and I have to deal with it, so I know it's real (not all in my mind as I am so often told, in fact, I cannot even talk or vent about it anymore they don't WANT to hear of it, period, so I just keep it all to myself and cover up best I can and that is that)....seeing my parents for breakfast tomorrow with my daughter, hoping to be able to share this with them, but I doubt they will even hear what I have to say about it.  :(  I ask many questions about my past issues (like ringworm at 2, iron issues at 15, etc.) and am met with "I don't remember that very well".  NO answers, just more questions really...

    • Barbara Pask > Tina August 25, 2013 at 1:55pm

      I am so sorry this is such a struggle for you Tina and you cannot talk to your family about this. That is the reason we have this group so we can share this and be there for each other. No one can really understand it unless they have it. I try to be positive about it as there are much worse things to have as it is mostly a cosmetic issue. I am happy when anyone asks me about it so I can educate them because most people have never heard of it. Try to love yourself, for some reason this is our burden to carry. Hugs

    • Tina > Tina May 26, 2013 at 11:15am

      oh I am sorry Jess,to answer your question, I don't think my only daughter got this "gene" from me at least not yet, thank God, and I pray she never does.  She's a beautiful 13 year old girl, and has none of the symptoms or signs of having or getting this, I pray she never does.  I enforce the sunblock thing with her constantly (sun damage brought this on for me full force but I suspect there were a ton of genetic factors also, that didn't show up until much later on)....hope that helps a bit....this is really is a nightmare most days, I would not wish it on anyone...

  • Hector May 23, 2013 at 4:28pm

    From Mauro Picardo & Alain Taïeb's Vitiligo compendium (ISBN: 978-3-540-69360-4; DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-69361-1)

    Large-scale epidemiological surveys have shown that most cases of generalized vitiligo occur sporadically, though about 15–20% of patients report one or more affected first-degree relatives.

    Generalized vitiligo is a disease of multifactorial, polygenic origin involving multiple genes and environmental triggers. The risk of vitiligo is about 6–7% to a patient’s siblings and other first-degree relatives; this risk declines as the degree of relationship is reduced.

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