Has anyone here ever gotten one of those home DNA tests?

[JDTAY]

Okay, so I’ve been looking at a couple of sites that do medical DNA tests, $250 each. Color Health and Invitae. Which one do you think I should go with?

Genes Color Analyzes: Color Extended - Color Health, Inc.

Learn about the genes we analyze in the Color Extended genetic test.

www.color.com

Medically actionable genetic testing for individuals | Invitae

www.invitae.com

Both test the CHEK2 gene, which is the main thing I want tested, since my sister is CHEK2*1100delC positive. With Color Health I also get testing for hereditary heart conditions, but with Invitae I get testing for nearly twice as many hereditary cancer risk genes.

 

[JDTAY]

You know, never mind. I would need a card to pay, and apparently Visa gift cards and the like only go up to $200. I’m going to try to convince my sister to cooperate with my doctor to get me tested there. It didn’t go so well last time though.

 

[JDTAY]

My sister still doesn’t want to cooperate to get my CHEK2 gene tested, but I think I found a kit on Amazon that’ll test it: tellmegen Advanced. I’m gonna try it out.

 

[levi]

How will you know it works, unless you get professionally tested and then compare the results?

 

[JDTAY]

I received my tellmeGen Advanced kit on Saturday, but didn't actually mail it back out until yesterday, because it had a UPS label rather than standard postal service. UPS estimates that it will reach its destination in California on Tuesday, and tellmeGen says I should receive my results four to six weeks after that. I'll let you guys know then if my tellmeGen results include CHEK2 status or not.

 

[JDTAY]

Well, my sample arrived at tellmeGen today, according to UPS tracking. Now let’s see how long it takes them to acknowledge it. IIRC, it was like a week between when AncestryDNA received my sample and when they acknowledged it, but that was during a busy time of year at a busier company.

 

[JDTAY]

tellmeGen says they have my sample. Now I can time them. They have exactly six weeks until the world explodes.

 

[JDTAY]

Good news. Ancestry updated my ethnicity estimate again.

62% Sweden and Denmark
17% England and Northwestern Europe
10% Germanic Europe
6% Norway
5% Scotland

So, I went from 1% German to 0% to 10%. I still think it should be around 37%, given my mother's ancestry. A lot of it is probably being swallowed by Denmark.

 

[JDTAY]

I'm considering getting a Y-DNA test. FamilyTreeDNA charges more to test one chromosome than Ancestry does to test 44 chromosomes though. The cool thing about Y-DNA though is that it doesn't swap with X-DNA, meaning it barely changes, so it can be used to trace back several generations more than autosomal DNA. You can only trace back on your patrilineal line though. That is the line I'm most curious about though. I can trace my Swedish and German ancestry back to Sweden and Germany, but with the Taylors I get stuck in Virginia.

 

[JDTAY]

And the FamilyTreeDNA Y-DNA test has been ordered.

Still another three to five weeks for those tellmeGen results.

 

[TeDaDeS]

Does that mean you also find relatives and not only ancestors locations?

 

[JDTAY]

Yeah, all three sites (Ancestry, tellmeGen, FamilyTreeDNA) include the option to view and allow to be viewed by DNA relatives.

If that's not enough, there's a site called GEDmatch that aims to compare people across all DNA test sites. They do this by letting you upload data downloaded from the DNA test sites.

Edit: Be prepared for potentially a lot of matches though. On Ancestry, I have 1,400 fourth cousins or closer, and another 17,000 that share just enough DNA with me to be viewed.

 

[JDTAY]

My Y-DNA test arrived yesterday. I took it just now, and put the samples into the envelope, and put that into the outgoing mailbox. Kind of a funny thing to be doing at one in the morning, but I was bored.

 

[JDTAY]

I got my tellmeGen results back today. A look at the raw data file confirms that I have that CHEK2 variant that I’ve been freaking out about for over a year. It’s not so bad though. For men, the only recommendation for CHEK2 is to start colonoscopies at age 40 instead of 50. I’m not 40 yet.

 

[JDTAY]

I want to scan my tellmeGen raw data file for other hereditary cancer variants, but there's no easy way to do that. Promethease is the most recommended thing, but it costs $12, and I don't have a credit or debit card.

CHEK2 is enough to deal with anyway. It just doesn't explain why my mother and her sister got cancer so early. It's supposed to be a moderate risk mutation. The only things I can think of is that they had another mutation on top of it or maybe they were homozygous. I do hear horror stories about homozygous CHEK2. Good thing I'm heterozygous.

 

[rygD]

I’m not 40 yet.

Then shut up, kid.

 

[JDTAY]

I just signed up for my fourth DNA test. This one is different though. It’s part of the SPARK for Autism study, the largest autism study ever. I received info in the mail about it from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

SPARK

sparkforautism.org

 

[JDTAY]

I just learned that the Reddit autism community views SPARK for Autism negatively, due to the possible use of the results for eugenics, meaning fetuses with a high probability of autism might get aborted at higher rates. This is where I lay down a bit of controversy. You can’t really support reproductive rights while telling women what is a correct and incorrect reason to get an abortion. That’s right, I’m defending eugenics. I’m hoping someday we’ll have the option to remove certain genetic defects without removing the whole fetus though. It would be nice if I didn’t pass on my CHEK2 mutation to any daughters.

P.S. Fuck Gattaca.

 

[matzesu]

I think whit DNA, its the same as whit Bee Queens in a Beehive: you know there is one but as long as everything is ok, you wouldnd need to search for it....

I have DNA, but i dont bother much what it says, also there are much more things that change you than your DNA..

You can have the Healthiesest DNA, but when you get Run Over by a (Semi) Truck, its ditnt help you..

 

[JDTAY]

Oh man, apparently SPARK uses exome sequencing. Fancy stuff, but it takes over a year to get results. I’m not sure I can wait that long.