Cord Blood / Stem Cell Tissue Banking - Worth It?

[DonkeyCigars 143]

Asking for a friend. Seems a bit...ridiculous. But also seems like if you ever needed it, it would be great. Is it the ultimate insurance that you pay thousands of bucks for or is it a waste of money and a bit of a scam?

[Skipper 6,411]

I don't really know the answer.  We did it with our kids, like you said, as insurance.  And from what I've read the science continues to evolve.  Hope we never need to use it.   But I did just get an email today offering a discount to anyone I referred (and a discount on my storage) so hit me up if you (or your 'friend') decide to go through with it.

[dcbc 14,644]

Skip it.  We did it.  Paid for it for years.  Eventually just let it go.  If you have a current need for stem cells, I guess go.  But if not, it's just a long term lease.

[Deej 77,830]

What are the overdraft fees?

[dcbc 14,644]

11 minutes ago, Deej said:

What are the overdraft fees?

'bout tree-fiddy

 

[Bevo 13,897]

There are some cool experiments that I would want to try. I was speaking with a cousin who has Lupus and probably due to her treatment developed a type of lymphoma. She is going to need a bone marrow transplant and was told that the BMT would cure her Lupus. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a great match so she will develop some level of graft verses host disease which sucks big time. Although it wouldn't help my cousin, I would love to see if it would be possible to cure Lupus by wiping out the immune system and then restoring it with your own bone marrow from birth. Normally, this wouldn't be a good idea because the thought is that your immune system was defective which led to the autoimmune disease. But, the question is was it defective from the start or was there a virus or some other environmental factor that caused the immune system to go haywire? By wiping out the immune system and then putting back the system you had at birth, you could potentially answer that question.

[orange dream 1,295]

We saved cord blood for our youngest (7 y/o) and just got the bill for this year's storage this week.  I suppose we will continue to keep it but I don't even know what the use case would ever be or how we'd get it if we needed it.

I have also wondered before if it (youngest's cord blood / stem cells) would be useful for our other kids or my wife or I if we ever had a need.  I know I've heard stories before where a couple had a kid who had some specific illness and they ended up having another kid in hopes that somehow that new child could somehow help the existing sick kid.  Any thoughts from anyone?

[Bevo 13,897]

1 hour ago, orange dream said:

We saved cord blood for our youngest (7 y/o) and just got the bill for this year's storage this week.  I suppose we will continue to keep it but I don't even know what the use case would ever be or how we'd get it if we needed it.

I have also wondered before if it (youngest's cord blood / stem cells) would be useful for our other kids or my wife or I if we ever had a need.  I know I've heard stories before where a couple had a kid who had some specific illness and they ended up having another kid in hopes that somehow that new child could somehow help the existing sick kid.  Any thoughts from anyone?

It could possibly help - it depends on both the disease and the technology (ie. the ability of the scientist or clinical researcher to differentiate the cells into the desired cell type). It will also depend on the storage conditions. I would assume that there will be some big lawsuits when someone needs to use the cells and they turn out to be dead.

[orange dream 1,295]

2 hours ago, Bevo said:

It could possibly help - it depends on both the disease and the technology (ie. the ability of the scientist or clinical researcher to differentiate the cells into the desired cell type). It will also depend on the storage conditions. I would assume that there will be some big lawsuits when someone needs to use the cells and they turn out to be dead.

I've thought about this also.  Probably the same with the spunk and egg bank for someone who wanted to save them for later...

 

[fattyflattie 4,640]

We have it on all three of ours.  I hope we never have to use it of course, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s not crazy expensive. I assume at some point we might let it go. I don’t know. 

[Heme Doc 417]

Not worth it imo

[Revolution512 1,518]

Scam

[MonkeyDoughnut 10,803]

If you don't already have a use for it, not worth it. Odds incredibly low it would be needed.

[Baboontyme 2,883]

For our first, we donated it. For our second we forgot. When I researched it seemed like donating was a worthy cause but that was 11+ years ago.