“In general, there are cultural influences on the decision” to remove healthy breasts and ovaries, said Joy Larsen Haidle, a genetic counselor at the Humphrey Cancer Center in Minneapolis

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Still, the risk of getting a fuzzy result from a genetic test worries some genetic counselors. Such results “don’t tell us anything,” says Joy Larsen Haidle, a genetic counselorRead More

There are also about 20 genetic tests that can assess one’s risk of suffering an aneurysm—a bulging blood vessel that can be fatal if it bursts in the brain or the aorta that feeds the heart.

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Genetic testing has gone mainstream. A rapidly growing understanding of how genes contribute to disease is making it feasible for anyone to undergo testing for dozens of genes and genetic mutations—and to learn how...Read More

You should also consider testing if you have two or more female relatives who got breast cancer at any age on the same side of the family, or one who developed breast cancer before 50Read More

"Opioid addiction, like most human behavioral traits, is a very complex issue that is hugely unlikely to be comprehensively explained by a small set of genetic variations," said Austin.

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A few companies have begun advertising diagnostic liquid biopsy tests, but patients who are tempted to ask doctors for these unapproved tests should think twice, says Joy Larsen Haidle, past president of the National...Read More

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a genetic condition that causes high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (sometimes referred to as bad cholesterol) from birth. FH means high cholesterol that runs in a family.Read More

The sheer number of genetic tests has exploded in the past decade or so. There are now thousands of different testable genetic disorders. In fact, demand for genetic tests has been strong since 2013.Read More

The American College of Medical Genetics and National Society of Genetic Counselors do not recommend routine testing, nor do the organizations recommend people use direct-to-consumer testing services

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