DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am a black woman, 29 years old and about to be married. I am told I have sickle cell trait. I have never been sick a day in my life. Will I pass the sickle cell trait to my children, and could they become sick from it? – A.G.

ANSWER: Sickle cell trait, except in a few unusual circumstances, doesn’t lead to health problems. A single gene bestows the trait on a person. Most live lives as healthy as yours. It’s found in 7 percent to 10 percent of blacks. Some of your children will inherit your gene and have the trait.

If a person with one gene for sickle cell marries another who has one gene, their children have a 1-in-4 chance of coming down with sickle cell anemia. Two genes, one from the father and one from the mother, produce sickle cell anemia. The anemia and the trait are distinctly different. The anemia can be very troublesome. Only if you marry another carrier of the gene is there a chance of your children coming down with sickle cell anemia.

In sickle cell anemia, the red blood cells are subject to episodes of spontaneous rupture. The red blood count, therefore, is always on the low side, and that constitutes anemia.

In addition, people with sickle cell anemia are subject to “crises” – periods of great pain that often require powerful painkilling drugs. The anemia can damage the kidneys, bones, lungs and nervous system.

In addition to alleviating pain, doctors lessen the damage by keeping patients well-hydrated, and that often means intravenous fluids must be administered. Blood transfusions restore the red blood cell population, but transfusions have to be kept to a minimum to avoid overloading a patient with iron. Hydroxyurea is a drug often used for patients who have frequent crises.

Bone marrow transplantation is considered for some patients. As serious as sickle cell anemia is, the life span of sickle cell patients has doubled in the past few decades.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I think I read somewhere that anti-inflammatory drugs can interfere with blood pressure medicine. Is that so? I take Advil daily for arthritis, and I also take a high blood pressure pill. How will I know if Advil is interfering with it? – R.Z.

ANSWER: You won’t have any difficulty knowing. Your blood pressure will rise. Can you take your own blood pressure at home? If you can, the problem is solved. If you can’t, call your doctor’s office and tell the receptionist you want to have a blood pressure check.

The effect of anti-inflammatory medicines on blood pressure doesn’t happen to all who take them. And it doesn’t happen with all anti-inflammatory drugs.

For readers, the names of some commonly used anti-inflammatory drugs are: Voltaren, Motrin, Indocin, Toradol, Naprosyn, Daypro and Aleve.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Can you help me? The end of my penis started to hurt with an erection for a couple of months. In the next couple of months I noticed it was curving to one side. The urologist told me that nothing could be done but to take vitamin E.

Can you suggest anything else? – H.T.

ANSWER: Did the urologist call it Peyronie’s (pay-row-KNEES) disease? Your description is in keeping with it. Scar tissue has formed in the penis, and the scar tissue pulls the penis to one side or upward or downward. In severe cases, it makes intercourse impossible.

Why scar tissue forms is a question begging for an answer. Some say it might come from the minor trauma of intercourse. Not everyone accepts that explanation.

Remedies are many, but certain cures are few. Vitamin E is often suggested. Surgical removal of the scar buildup is attempted in some cases. Injecting the scar tissue with verapamil, a heart medicine, has been tried. Penile implants are another possible solution. In some men, Peyronie’s disappears in a matter of time.

Why not talk with a more upbeat urologist about your situation?

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Within the past three years, my son-in-law has had both legs amputated because of cancer. He is very positive and went back to work two weeks after his last surgery. The problem is that he is in more pain now than before his surgery. The doctor calls it phantom pain and says nothing can be done. Is there any answer? – D.F.

ANSWER: Your son-in-law has put up with more than most are asked to deal with. He deserves a pain-free life. I can enumerate some of the treatments used for this kind of pain, but his best bet is to seek a doctor or a clinic that specializes in pain management. The family doctor or the county or state medical societies can furnish you with names of pain clinics and doctors dedicated to pain relief.

Phantom pain is strange. The person feels pain in the missing limb just as though it were still there. The explanations for this kind of pain are many and are technical, so I’ll spare you the details.

Sometimes local treatments help. Application of ice packs to the stump might provide some relief. A device called TENS delivers a low-voltage current to the painful leg that can sometimes suppress pain. So can the cream capsaicin or the Lidoderm skin patch.

Neurontin, Tegretol and Dilantin are seizure drugs, but they are also used to suppress chronic pain. Amitriptyline, an antidepressant, is also used for pain control.

The use of narcotics is a subject that generates heated discussions. I feel – and not everyone agrees with my position – that these drugs have an important role for someone who suffers pain day in and day out. The specter of addiction leaps into people’s minds, but pain-sufferers don’t usually become addicts. They can most often get off such medicines without a fuss when their pain goes away.

Realize I have mentioned only a fraction of available treatments. Spinal cord stimulators and infusion of drugs into the spinal cord are other useful treatments.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475.