If you've been following my blog, you'll remember that back at the beginning of May, I decided I wanted to do a couple DNA tests to see if I could determine where my ancestors immigrated from on my Mom's side of the family (you can check out that blog here)
I ordered two tests - one from Ancestry DNA and one from MyHeritage DNA - and you'll also remember that I had some issues with the MyHeritage DNA test, so chose to do a third test through 23andMe (you can check out that blog here)
Now onto my 23andMe DNA results (I will be doing a comparison of ethnicity percentages from both Ancestry and 23andMe in a future blog)
The 99% European can be further broken down:
With the 23andMe test, you can trace your Ancestry Timeline which outlines how many generations ago your most recent ancestor for each population was from:
23andMe also gives you additional reports - one of those is the Carrier Status Report. According to 23andMe, these reports tell you about variants that may not affect your health, but could affect the health of your future family. For the conditions included in these reports, a person can be a carrier even if they don't have a personal or family history of the disease.
There are currently 42 conditions that they test for - my results were "variant not detected" for all the reports. What does that mean? According to 23andMe, if you see "Variant not detected" for a Carrier Status report, it means you're not a carrier of the tested variant(s). Keep in mind that while our Carrier Status reports cover many variants, they don't include all possible variants associated with each condition. So it's still possible to be a carrier of a variant not included in our test.
There are also currently 4 genetic health risks they test for. These reports tell you about genetic variants that may increase your risk of developing certain health conditions (again mine were all "variant not detected").
The next report that is provided by 23andMe is a fun one - the Traits Report. These reports are a fun way to learn about how your DNA influences your physical appearance, preferences, and physical responses. The predictions are based on current knowledge of how genetic factors influence our traits. Currently, there are 19 traits for which they provide a report for, including such things as asparagus odor detection, earlobe type, finger length ratio, hair curliness and unibrow.
I ordered two tests - one from Ancestry DNA and one from MyHeritage DNA - and you'll also remember that I had some issues with the MyHeritage DNA test, so chose to do a third test through 23andMe (you can check out that blog here)
Now onto my 23andMe DNA results (I will be doing a comparison of ethnicity percentages from both Ancestry and 23andMe in a future blog)
The other 1% is a mishmash of ethnicities - which according to 23andMe goes back 8+ generations:
With the 23andMe test, you can trace your Ancestry Timeline which outlines how many generations ago your most recent ancestor for each population was from:
23andMe delves further into exactly which ethnicity is linked to which chromosome with their Ancestry Composition Chromosome Painting
There are currently 42 conditions that they test for - my results were "variant not detected" for all the reports. What does that mean? According to 23andMe, if you see "Variant not detected" for a Carrier Status report, it means you're not a carrier of the tested variant(s). Keep in mind that while our Carrier Status reports cover many variants, they don't include all possible variants associated with each condition. So it's still possible to be a carrier of a variant not included in our test.
There are also currently 4 genetic health risks they test for. These reports tell you about genetic variants that may increase your risk of developing certain health conditions (again mine were all "variant not detected").
The last reports that are provided by 23andMe are the Wellness Reports. These reports help you understand how your DNA influences your body's response to environmental factors like diet or lifestyle. Again, these reports are a fun way to learn more about how your DNA influences such things as lactose intolerance, alcohol flush reaction, and caffeine consumption.
Once you are finished with all the reports, you can then move onto your DNA relatives section where you can find and connect with genetic relatives to learn about relationships, shared ancestors and family history to find common ancestors. I found this section a little overwhelming as I had approximately 1200 DNA relatives with over 300 of those being anonymous. I had 3 relatives that were supposedly 2nd to 3rd cousins, 20 that were 3rd to 5th cousins, 56 who were 3rd to 6th cousins, and the majority 3rd to distant cousins.
23andMe allows you to contact your DNA relatives, which I have done for some of the closer relatives, but unfortunately, I have not received a reply from any messages I have sent.
Would I recommend 23andMe ?
Yes. The 23andMe DNA test is a bit pricer compared to the Ancestry DNA, however, you do get a ton more information than provided by Ancestry. I can see the additional information being helpful for those wanting to start a family especially the carrier and genetic health risk tests.
My rating: 4.5 out of 5
Yes. The 23andMe DNA test is a bit pricer compared to the Ancestry DNA, however, you do get a ton more information than provided by Ancestry. I can see the additional information being helpful for those wanting to start a family especially the carrier and genetic health risk tests.
My rating: 4.5 out of 5
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