08/06/2025
In this day and age, nobody who has any African ancestry, should be clueless about their sickle cell status.
It doesn’t matter whether you have your entire family on the African continent, versus your entire family on the American continent, for example. As long as you have some African ancestry, whether recent or remote, you need to know if you have the sickle cell trait or not.
Ask your doctor for a test.
My ancestry is 100% West African. This is part of my life story. My paternal grandfather wrote about his early childhood at the time of the Spanish influenza. This is the oldest documented history in my family that we know of. What about you? Who is the eldest family member in your family who wrote down their history? If none, you can start today by asking the oldest Relative alive to tell you what they remember from way back. 
Those who have sickle cell disease know, they already have symptoms, there’s no question there.
Those who have the trait are healthy and have no symptoms. These are the ones who usually do not know. If such people have children with someone else, who also has the sickle cell trait, they have a 1 in 4 chance of having a child with sickle cell disease.
Sickle cell disease has many symptoms. This disease can impact somebody heavily. This disease can impact a child heavily. This is not something people should Say they didn’t know about.
People should know their sickle cell status, whether they have the trait or not, so they can make an informed decision about who to have children with.
Going back to your oldest documented, family history, put together everything you find out from your oldest living relative and write it down for your family, for posterity.
Thank me later 🙏🏾
If we just met,
I am Dr. UCHE books 😉
Writing coach, YouTuber, hematologist or Blood physician. 
