Is Our Blood Type Compatible?
Question
I am 29 and my wife is 32 years old. We have been married for almost three years, we don’t have baby yet. We want to have baby, my wife wants to get pregnant. I am a blood type AB person and my wife is type O. Does this really matter? Is blood type of a consideration when it comes to pregnancy?
Rene
Answer
Last Updated: February 13, 2014
Dear Rene,
The fact that you have blood type AB and your wife has type O is okay – it is not preventing pregnancy. Blood types are checked because there is another factor, called Rh, that can cause problems for the baby if the mother is Rh negative and the father is Rh positive. However, even if that is the case with you and your wife, it should not be causing infertility – just something your doctor will follow to protect the baby.
If your wife has not become pregnant after three years, I would recommend you both attend natural family planning classes to learn more about your fertility cycles, and to increase your chance of pregnancy. The charts that you will learn to keep on her cycle will also help her doctor if there is something wrong with her cycle.
I wish you both the best.
Dr. Lynn Keenan
The fact that you have blood type AB and your wife has type O is okay – it is not preventing pregnancy. Blood types are checked because there is another factor, called Rh, that can cause problems for the baby if the mother is Rh negative and the father is Rh positive. However, even if that is the case with you and your wife, it should not be causing infertility – just something your doctor will follow to protect the baby.
If your wife has not become pregnant after three years, I would recommend you both attend natural family planning classes to learn more about your fertility cycles, and to increase your chance of pregnancy. The charts that you will learn to keep on her cycle will also help her doctor if there is something wrong with her cycle.
I wish you both the best.
Dr. Lynn Keenan
Answered By:
Lynn Keenan, MD
Lynn Keenan, MD, Immediate Past President of the CANFP Executive Board, is a Clinical Professor at the UCSF/Fresno Internal Medicine Residency Program (now retired), Board Certified in Sleep and Internal Medicine, and Vice President of the International Institute for Restorative Reproductive Medicine. She earned her BSN at UCLA, her MD at Temple University School of Medicine, and completed her Residency in Internal Medicine at UCSF/Fresno. Dr. Keenan served on the Executive Board of CANFP since 2004, as President of CANFP since 2010, and graciously agreed to continue her service to CANFP on the Advisory Board at the beginning of 2019, upon her retirement from the Executive Board of CANFP
