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Carrier Status and Genetics

Uncovering your carrier status may not have a direct impact on your personal health, but it can play an important role in planning for your future family. The 23andMe Carrier Status Reports* look for genetic variants that you may “carry” for certain inherited conditions. For the genetic conditions covered by these reports, people with just one variant — called carriers — aren’t expected to have the condition themselves. But carriers can pass their variant down to their future children. So if both you and your partner are carriers for the same condition, each child will have a 25% chance of having that condition. Keep in mind that, in most cases, these reports do not include all possible genetic variants associated with each condition.

Your Carrier Status Reports can help you create a more informed health plan with your doctor as you grow your family. 23andMe’s Health + Ancestry Service includes over 40 Carrier Status Reports. If you do discover you’re a carrier, we encourage you to talk to a genetic counselor if you plan to start a family soon. 

* The 23andMe PGS test uses qualitative genotyping to detect select clinically relevant variants in the genomic DNA of adults for the purpose of reporting carrier status and reporting and interpreting genetic health risks. The relevance of each report may vary based on ethnicity. Our carrier status reports can be used to determine carrier status, but cannot determine if you have two copies of any genetic variant. These carrier reports are not intended to tell you anything about your risk for developing a disease in the future or anything about the health of your fetus, or your newborn child’s risk of developing a particular disease later in life. For certain conditions, we provide a single report that includes information on both carrier status and genetic health risk. For important information and limitations regarding each carrier status report visit www.23andMe.com/test-info.