Husband's Brother is a Match!

[Bossywife]

Yippee!! But I wasn't the one who got the phone call... isn't there a number out of 10 that they give you to show how much of a match he is? Should I call them back?

I call my brother in law my new "parts husband". haha.

[Neil Cuadra]

Congratulations!

Yes, you should doible-check that your brother-in-law was found to be a full match.

They rate unrelated-donor matches based on how many HLA antigens are tested, e.g., 6 of 6 match, 10 of 10 match, 12 of 12 match. In this case, for a sibling, they might be a full match or a half match. I bet it's a full match if they didn't say otherwise, which would be great news indeed.

In most cases, non-identical-twin siblings have a 25% chance of being a full match, a 50% chance of being a half match, and a 25% chance of not matching. If by chance their parents happen to share one or two HLA alleles, then the chances of a half match are higher (62.5%) and the chances of not matching are lower (12.5%), but the chances of a full match remain at 25%. It sounds like you beat those odds!