The 23andMe Carrier Status* Reports are included in the Health + Ancestry Service, Health Service, 23andMe+ Premium™ Membership and 23andMe+ Total Health™ Membership. The 23andMe Carrier Status* Reports tell you about variants that may not affect your health, but could affect the health of your future family.
Being a "carrier" means you "carry" one genetic variant for a condition. (The conditions covered by our Carrier Status reports are inherited in an autosomal recessive manner, which means that a person needs to inherit two variants -- one from each parent -- in order to have the condition.) Carriers do not typically have the genetic condition, but they can pass a genetic variant down to their children. If two reproductive partners are both carriers for the same genetic condition, then each of their children has a 25% chance of having that condition.Understanding your carrier status helps you work with your doctor to prepare for the health of your future family. When viewing your Carrier Status Reports, please keep the following key information in mind.
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Key Information About the 23andMe Carrier Status Reports
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This article will address the following questions:
- Can 23andMe Carrier Status reports rule out the possibility that I am a carrier for an inherited disease?
- Does 23andMe test for all variants associated with a condition?
- Why doesn’t each Carrier Status report include all the genetic variants associated with that condition?
- Why are some Carrier Status reports more relevant for people of certain ethnicities than for others?
Can 23andMe Carrier Status reports rule out the possibility that I am a carrier for an inherited disease?
No. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, 23andMe doesn’t perform carrier testing for all inherited conditions. Second, among those conditions for which we do perform carrier testing, we usually do not report on all possible variants. This means that it’s possible for someone to be a carrier of a variant that’s not included in our report. In other words, “zero variants detected” doesn’t always mean “zero carrier risk.”
Consider talking to a healthcare professional if you are starting a family, if one of these conditions runs in your family, or if you have concerns about your results. Learn more about how to connect with a healthcare professional.
Does 23andMe test for all variants associated with a condition?
No. Our reports generally include the most common variants associated with a condition, but they usually do not include all possible variants. This means that our tests cannot detect all carriers. Visit each report to learn more about which variants we test for each condition.
Visit each report to learn more about which variants we test for each condition.
Consider talking to a healthcare professional if you are starting a family, if one of these conditions runs in your family, or if you have concerns about your results. Learn more about how to connect with a healthcare professional.
Why doesn’t each Carrier Status report include all the genetic variants associated with that condition?
Many of the conditions included in our Carrier Status Reports can be caused by hundreds of different genetic variants. While our Carrier Status Reports cover many variants, they usually do not include all possible variants linked to each condition.
In order for us to include a variant in a report, the variant must be detectable by our genotyping technology and pass rigorous validation testing to optimize test accuracy.
Consider talking to a healthcare professional if you are starting a family, if one of these conditions runs in your family, or have concerns about your result. Learn more about how to connect with a healthcare professional.
Why are some Carrier Status reports more relevant for people of certain ethnicities than for others?
Some of the conditions we test for in our Carrier Status Reports occur more frequently in people of certain ethnicities or genetic ancestries. For example, sickle cell anemia is most common among people of African descent and also impacts people of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent, as well as people from the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and parts of Central and South America. Tay-Sachs disease is most common among people of Ashkenazi Jewish, French Canadian, and Cajun descent. When a condition occurs more frequently in a certain population, we want to highlight that Carrier Status Report for people of that ethnicity.
It’s also important to consider whether our test does a good job of detecting carriers among people of a specific ethnicity. Many of the variants we test for occur more frequently in people of some ethnicities than in others; this means that we can detect a larger proportion of carriers in certain ethnicities.
In each Carrier Status Report, we provide a list of ethnicities for which our test is most relevant, which can be found in the Ethnicity Considerations section of the "How to Use This Test" section of the report. To be included in this list, at least 1 in 130 people of that ethnicity must be a carrier for the condition and our test must be able to detect at least 70% of carriers among people of that ethnicity. This doesn’t mean that the test isn't useful for other people; it just means that the test won’t identify as many carriers in other ethnicities. The Ethnicity Considerations section may also call out populations for which our test doesn't do as good a job at detecting carriers. (You might notice that the list of ethnicities for which our test is most relevant is not always the same as the “Ethnicities Most Affected” in the “About Condition” section of the report. “Ethnicities Most Affected” includes ethnicities in which the condition is most common, even if our test detects fewer than 70% of carriers in those ethnicities.)
On the Scientific Details page of each report, in the "Test Performance Summary" section, you can find information about the carrier detection rate of our test for ethnicities where that data is available. Carrier detection rate is an estimate of the percentage of carriers for the condition that would be identified by our test. (In some reports, this information may be found in the Test Interpretation and Clinical Performance section on the Scientific Details page.)
Keep in mind that, regardless of whether your ethnicity is listed in the "Ethnicity Considerations" section in a particular report, we usually do not test for every variant linked to each condition. Please refer to the individual Carrier Status Reports for information on relevant ethnicities and tested variants.
Consider talking to a healthcare professional if you are starting a family, if one of these conditions runs in your family, or have concerns about your results. Learn more about how to connect with a healthcare professional.
Additional Resources
- I’m concerned about something I learned from my reports. What do I do?
- Take me to my Carrier Status Reports
*The 23andMe PGS test includes health predisposition and carrier status reports. Health predisposition reports include both reports that meet FDA requirements for genetic health risks and reports which are based on 23andMe research and have not been reviewed by the FDA. The test uses qualitative genotyping to detect select clinically relevant variants in the genomic DNA of adults from saliva for the purpose of reporting and interpreting genetic health risks and reporting carrier status. It is not intended to diagnose any disease. Your ethnicity may affect the relevance of each report and how your genetic health risk results are interpreted. Each genetic health risk report describes if a person has variants associated with a higher risk of developing a disease, but does not describe a person’s overall risk of developing the disease. The test is not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health, or to be used to make medical decisions, including whether or not you should take a medication, how much of a medication you should take, or determine any treatment. 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, 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. Warnings & Limitations: The 23andMe PGS Genetic Health Risk Report for BRCA1/BRCA2 (Selected Variants) is indicated for reporting of 44 variants in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. The report describes if a person's genetic result is associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer and may be associated with an increased risk for prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and potentially other cancers. The variants included in this report do not represent the majority of the BRCA1/BRCA2 variants in people of most ethnicities. This report does not include variants in other genes linked to hereditary cancers and the absence of variants included in this report does not rule out the presence of other genetic variants that may impact cancer risk. This report is for over-the-counter use by adults over the age of 18, and provides genetic information to inform discussions with a healthcare professional. The PGS test is not a substitute for visits to a healthcare professional for recommended screenings or appropriate follow-up. Results should be confirmed by an independent genetic test prescribed by your own healthcare provider before taking any medical action.Results should be confirmed by an independent genetic test prescribed by your own healthcare provider before taking any medical action. For important information and limitations regarding genetic health risk reports, visit 23andme.com/test-info/