DNA Medical Testing

[kenzyg14]

Hi there!! After researching 23andMe and Ancestry, I realized either sites don’t give out much personal medical history… I am a sperm donor child and would like to get more of a medical take on my DNA. Any suggestions? Also, I have read Very mixed reviews on 23andMe and Ancestry. Some people who thought it was great and others who wished they could get more info. Does anyone have a good experiences with these sites that they would like to share with me? Thank you!!

[wmdoran]

@kenzyg14 I DNA tested on 23andMe, FTDNA, and Ancestry as well as uploaded my raw data for free to GedMatch.com. I want to encourage you to do the same. It is very important you are on all three databases as your matches may test on any one of them. I tested with 23andMe back in 2012/13 timeframe when it was $300 and health reports were standard with the test. Since then the stupid CDC/FDA banned their health reports analytics as part of their service due to not having approved it. For me personally it was very important for me just like you. Everything it told me was spot on down to my eye color, hair texture, type of ear way, eating habits, athletic abilities, as well as risks for things like heart disease, alzheimers, gall stones, alcoholism, drug reaction, carrier traits….etc. Something else to consider is even if you got a DNA companies statistical analysis it is not fool-proof and nothing beats real family history knowledge. Health history changes over the lifetime of an individual and is often multi-generational. Some genes even skip generations. Any talk about a ‘donors’ clean bill of health is crap hogwash to make the buyer feel warm and fuzzy and to boost the banks bottom line. It is logically false to say a 21 year old is healthy so your kid is healthy not to mention it’s all based on that persons honesty and actual knowledge of family health history. I would recommend just testing on all three and some day they will lift the ban on 23andMe and you will have reports. You need to be on all three for matches. 23andMe is the largest database of the three. I found my father through a 2-3 cousin match on 23andMe. That lead me on a long journey meeting family members, getting family trees and history, and after a couple years of internet, phone, person-to-person trips, DNA analysis, and a bit of destiny I found my father. I can’t say it ended well but the sleepless nights up late searching the internet helplessly are over. A lot of the missing holes in my identity were filled. Much of the family has been open armed even giving my sister and I heirlooms. My father has not been opened but continues to shut the door in my face. My half-sibs are very broken people suffering from their childhood’s. My half-brother recently reached out after 2 years of silence. Just get ready for a lot of stones to turn over and unexpected things you’ll find. It isn’t easy but it is totally all worth it. And any siblings you find later you will be working for them to in everything you do. Please make sure you buy DNA tests through DonorChildren links so this wonderful site stays free and open for others to join and benefit from a community of support and finding they family through matching tools. Make sure you also create Groups on here for your clinic, ID, etc. and also search the Members page periodically for matches. I wish you the best in your search!

[wmdoran]

By the way you have a match here on DonorChildren! @cbratbyrudd @kenzyg14 congrats it looks like you are siblings! I simply searched the Members page and saw your ID matched. Make sure you DNA test to confirm.

[kenzyg14]

Thank you so much for responding!! Yes, I want the information but I’m not really wanting to get connected with people from his side. At least not right now. So that’s always stopped me from trying these sites. Like you said there’s a lot of stones that could be turned over, and I don’t know if I want that in my life. But yes me and Cori matched and are half-siblings. We’ve already reached out to eachother and met! It was an amazing experience and I’m so happy that I found her through this.

[wmdoran]

That makes sense. You have to go at your own pace. Just don’t let my story scare you off. I have a worse case story. Many work out really well. The only way you’ll get family history is by finding your family. DNA and DonorChildren are your best bets for finding family/half-sibs. DNA is definitely a must. You never know you may have siblings waiting on those sites for you to join. There may be other sites out there purely for health analysis but I’m not familiar with them. If you find some please post them here to share. I hope you someday look for your family it is worth it despite any obstacles.

[CMartin1981]

Hi! I tested with all the sites (23andMe, Ancestry, FTDNA) simply because I am hoping to run across half-siblings. As for medical information, I used Promethease, which cost me $5 and gave a general — albeit messy — synopsis of a lot of genetic tendencies toward cancer, mental illness, etc. You upload your raw genome from your DNA test (from 23andMe, Ancestry, or FTDNA) and it uses that. If you would still need to do a DNA test to get to that point, I personally would use 23andMe since they do have some health information and keep adding more. If you want to stay hidden from paternal relatives, you could use a username that isn’t your actual name, or you could even opt out of the “DNA relatives” database altogether. I considered Promethease well worth the money.

I also used the SNPedia and OpenSNP websites to look up things I was curious about, such as the BRCA gene for breast cancer risk, and then compared the SNPs listed against my raw data from 23andMe and the others. It’s labor intensive — the BRCA gene(s) for instance includes at least 20 SNPs, about 17 of which were actually included in my genome from the DNA tests since they don’t map every last SNP, so getting a good idea of my risk from BRCA took at least half an hour — but I wanted to check out some risks I suspected I might have inherited and the ones that seemed confusing on my Promethease report.

I’ve also done formal genetic counseling after my biological father gave me a heads up about a particular gene mutation in his family that leads to a dramatically increased cancer risk. This was what led me to start looking things up on OpenSNP and my raw data, but the gene in question wasn’t included in my raw data. Having counseling and one gene screened cost me a couple hundred bucks (USA) and was only covered by insurance because I had a known close family member with a potentially dangerous mutation on that gene. I mention this because sometimes people suggest genetic counseling being better than a family medical history, and my experience indicated it wouldn’t yield much and might be prohibitively expensive for a DC person whose family medical history is at least half unknown since — in my experience — genetic medical testing at present only really tests for known risks, not unknown ones. I think this will eventually change, but for now, it seems to be the case.

[kenzyg14]

Wow!! Okay thank you so much! You’ve both given me so much to think about. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me with this and for sharing your stories.
I will definitely be checking out those sites and will probably get my DNA tested.
Thanks again!!

[wmdoran]

Awesome! Glad we could help. Please keep us updated on your testing and search, and don’t forget to buy your tests through links here on DonorChildren so the site stays funded and free. The tests cost the same no matter where you buy them.

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