Pregnancy is an exciting new adventure with many unknowns. Some people work very hard to get to pregnancy, others were surprised to discover they were pregnant, while others may not be sure how they feel about their pregnancy. Regardless of the circumstances, when a person goes to that first prenatal appointment – typically in the first trimester – it can feel a little overwhelming with all the information a doctor or midwife may provide. Your healthcare provider will often discuss what is safe to eat or do in pregnancy, what to expect throughout your pregnancy, and what choices you have to m ..read more

I recently read a book that highlighted a character who was adopted and searching for her birth mother. She had centered her whole life, including her career, around the idea of doing everything she could to make her birth parents proud. Even though she had never met her birth parents. This character struggled with the idea of her parents abandoning her and not loving her enough to keep her. Because of a health scare, she started wondering if she should try and find her birth parents. By the end of the book, she had tracked down her birth mother. Her experience with her birth parents was not ..read more

When asking a patient if they have any genetic conditions or health concerns that run in the family, I’ve often had patients respond, “no, but does crazy run in families?!” On a more serious note, I’ve also had patients who are very concerned that autism, cancer, heart disease, or other conditions run in their family and what risk they may have to also develop the same condition or pass them on to their children. A genetic counselor is trained to take a family pedigree, or basically draw out a family tree, and ask specific medical questions about each family member. By drawing out a family pe ..read more

It can be overwhelming to go into a doctor’s appointment to discuss a medical concern for yourself or a loved one. Often when we are worried about our health, we can think of a million questions in the days leading up to a doctor’s appointment, but when we actually sit down with the doctor our minds go blank. Just the other day I went in for one of my kid’s check-ups at the pediatrician’s office and I couldn’t remember any of the questions I wanted to ask him! When we meet with a genetic counselor, it’s most likely because we are concerned there is a genetic condition running in our family or ..read more

Before I became interested in genetic counseling, I honestly had no idea what it was. I was interested in genetics but had mainly taken college classes related to genetics and worked in a research lab. I thought the only healthcare provider who specialized in genetics were geneticists, who have medical degrees and then years of residency to become experts in the field of genetics. For me, I wasn’t interested in doing that much schooling. However, after reading an article in a magazine that highlighted genetic counseling and what it is, I realized how important this profession can be. After pu ..read more

There are many genetic conditions that can be inherited from a parent to a child. There are also genetic conditions that can happen randomly, caused by a mistake in a person’s genetic instructions that happened before that person was even born. Almost all genetic conditions can occur in both ways, randomly, and inherited from a parent. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a complex genetic condition that can be inherited from a female and also happen new or randomly in a person. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) primarily affects males but can sometimes affect females as well. DMD is caused by a ge ..read more

One of the first thoughts that arise from a mother or father after the birth of a baby are: who does the baby look like? Are the baby’s features a combination of the mother and father or does he or she look more like one over the other? It’s fascinating to look at a family with multiple children and see the similarities and differences of a variety of features – physical, emotional, and even social. For me, I know that my body type was inherited from my father and my hair came from my mother. My siblings and I all look very similar, a combination of both of my parents. When it comes to geneti ..read more

As a genetic counselor, with every patient we ask about a person’s family medical history. It’s common for genetic counselors to hear about family members who have various health concerns, mental health disorders, or how a family member died. It’s also fairly common to hear about a family member who struggles with addiction. Addiction is a chronic disease that affects different parts of the brain. When a person has an addiction, it’s not so easy to just stop. In the case of alcoholism, which is defined as a maladaptive pattern of drinking too much alcohol leading to serious physical, mental ..read more

Everyone has a risk of developing cancer throughout their life. Cancer is caused by both copies of a gene (or segment of our DNA) in a cell in our body that has mutated and no longer functions correctly. By not functioning correctly, the cell loses control and starts to divide into additional mutated cells. These mutated cells form a tumor, or cancer, which then continues to spread unless removed or treated. There are a number of ways that two copies of a gene can become mutated to form cancer. Approximately 70% of the time, cancer occurs sporadically. This means that throughout your life, yo ..read more

As we discussed previously, a genetic predisposition to a disease means that a person has genetic factors that contribute to an increased risk to develop the disease but does not directly cause the disease. We reviewed several categories of types of diseases based on etiology that can genetically predispose a person to a disease. Many people wonder, is depression a genetic disease? Am I at risk for depression if I have family members with depression? More than 19 million American adolescents and adults are affected by depression. This condition is about twice as common in women as in men. Due ..read more