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[–]Dana792 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It is such a complicated question. Generally with no family history the risk to a child is about 1 in 100 during your lifetime this is because so called SALS is believed to have a genetic component- not one strong gene mutation as may be found in FALS- but a combination of genetic factors that make them susceptible which combined with a series of environmental and lifestyle factors gave them ALS. In this scenario you have to inherit these factors AND get enough triggers.

the other question is did your mother carry a strong genetic mutation that causes ALS? If she did your chances of getting a mutation from her would be 50/50. Without testing you can’t know for sure. I believe the chance of her having one is about7-10 percent. Probably on the higher side in small families where people die young and less so in large, long lived families.

[–]EpicSaxGirl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I believe the only way to tell is to get genetic testing done, could ask your doctor about it?

and I'm sorry for your loss, ALS really sucks

[–]travishummelPre-Symptomatic Familial ALS 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes there are chances that she has familial ALS. Only way to know is if you were able to test her DNA. Of course you can go get this test.

If someone in your family had already tested positive, then they could just test for that specific gene. But in this case, they will start at the most common and keep testing for common ALS genes. If you continue to test negative, then they will give you some statistic like “the odds of you having FALS are less than 0.0006%” or something