I got my results first
And there were no surprises there. Pretty much as white as you can possibly get. The one bit of good news is that I'm super British which makes me unreasonably happy, I'm not going to lie!
I am not a genetic carrier for anything (which we already knew... we had DNA tests run when we did IVF and found out everything was copacetic and Christopher and I were genetically compatible), I don't have the BRCA1/BRCA2 (breast cancer) markers, late set Alzheimer's, or Parkinson's. I do have one marker for Macular Degeneration so I'm at an elevated risk, but my Nana had it so thats not terribly surprising.
My traits were pretty accurate...I can match musical pitch, smell asparagus pee, taste bitterness, have an aversion to cilantro, have green eyes, lighter skin, move a lot in my sleep, and am likely to consume more caffeine.
Stella's came next
All of hers was a surprise, obviously. We have very little information about her biological family so we wanted to do this for her for sure. We also found out that she isn't a genetic carrier for anything scary, not a carrier for the BRCA1/BRCA2, late set Alzheimer's, or Parkinson's. I would still like to do more in depth testing for her later on with blood work and not just spit and a commercial DNA kit, but having some answers now is a great start!
A lot of her traits were spot on (brown eyes, likely to have a lot of freckles-which her birth mom does and Stella's are coming in, dark hair, little baby hair, big toe longest, no dimples) She's predisposed to weigh less than average, has muscle composition common in power athletes (have you seen this girls delts?), is likely to consume less caffeine (obviously...her insane energy levels don't need caffeine), and isn't likely to be a deep sleeper (duh).
And finally, Christopher's results came... and his map is lit up like a Christmas tree... (and theres so much of his that it takes three screen shots to get it all)!
Not much of his was a great surprise. His grandmother was really into ancestry and had delved into their genealogy so he knew quite a bit about his Dads side. The amount of African ancestry was a bit of a surprise but the Puerto Rican didn't come through as strong as we thought it would (his grandpa was born and raised in PR).
The only thing he's a genetic carrier for is Cystic Fibrosis (and I can't remember if we knew that or not when we got our DNA stuff done for IVF... it seems like we did but its been so long I can't remember) but nothing else. He also has a marker for Macular Degeneration, both markers for Celiac. But no markers for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or Breast Cancer.
His wellness and traits were pretty accurate... lactose intolerant, likely to consume more caffeine, moves more in his sleep, asparagus smell, brown eyes, and wavy, thick, dark hair.
The really big surprise in his DNA, however, was that he and Stella share DNA!!! Not much, but enough that 23andMe suspects that they're 5th cousins!
It obviously hasn't ever mattered to us that we aren't biologically related to her, but to know they share DNA, even a minuscule amount, is just a beautiful thing. It gives her a tangible connection to us as a family and I think, future Stella will really love that and it will mean a lot to her.
This has been really fun and has set Christopher specifically on a deeper hunt through his ancestry. We both want to do the ancestry.com kits and compare the results and see if anything different shows up.
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