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Good morning. Today Megan Molteni tells us how infertility worries will likely temper sickle cell patients’ embrace of new gene therapies.

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New gene therapies for sickle cell disease come with an impossible choice: a cure or fertility

Molly Ferguson for STAT

For people with sickle cell disease, a chance at freedom from a debilitating genetic disease can mean giving up the chance to have biological children without assistance from reproductive technology. A new genetic therapy, called Casgevy and likely to be approved by the FDA this week, deploys CRISPR to edit the DNA of blood-forming cells so they no longer twist into a sickle shape and wreak havoc, inflicting extreme pain and damaging organs. Most of the 100,000 or so Americans with sickle cell are Black; they have endured a severe shortage of qualified disease specialists and insensitive care in emergency rooms and urgent care settings.

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