Congenital deafness can be caused by genetic factors or by abnormal embryonic development during the mother’s pregnancy, so some congenital deafness can be passed on to offspring. Congenital deafness can be genetically tested if you are concerned about inheritance in your offspring. Congenital deafness may be caused by heredity. There are three ways of inheriting congenital deafness: autosomal recessive inheritance, X-linked recessive inheritance, and autosomal dominant inheritance, through which the genes of congenital deafness patients are passed on to their offspring, so that the offspring will also have congenital deafness. However, congenital deafness is not always caused by genetic variations. It can also be caused by parents with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), mothers infected with the rubella virus during pregnancy, the use of certain medications during pregnancy, and premature babies suffering from septic meningitis. Congenital deafness from these causes is not passed on to future generations. If you are worried that your offspring may also have the condition, you can go to the hospital for genetic screening before you get pregnant.