Bilateral renal agenesis

Usually, bilateral renal agenesis is not genetic. Most often there is nothing a parent did or did not do to cause this birth defect and it resulted from an error during the baby's development. In some cases exposures during pregnancy such as uncontrolled maternal diabetes or taking certain drugs during pregnancy can increase the risk for bilateral renal agenesis. In rarer cases, if a parent has a kidney malformation or another child with a kidney malformation such as the absence of one kidney (unilateral renal agenesis) then they are at increased risk to have baby affected by bilateral renal agenesis. They may also have inherited mutations (alterations) in one of three possible genes (ITGA8, RET, or FGF20). Individuals with mutations in ITGA8, RET, or FGF20 may have a genetic condition called Hereditary Renal Adysplasia or Renal Hypodysplasia/aplasia (RHDA). A genetic counselor and medical geneticist can help determine if an individual could have undiagnosed RHDA and is at increased risk up to 50% to have a baby with bilateral renal agenesis. A medical geneticist can be found by asking your doctor for a referral or looking on the American College of Medical Geneticists website . Genetic counselors in the United States can be found on the National Society of Genetic Counselors website. Genetic counselors in Canada can be found at the Canadian Association of Genetic Counselors website.