GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2007-03 > 1174520579


From: Vincent Vizachero <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Medical and insurance implications of Y chromosome andmtDNA testing
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:42:59 -0500
References: <587130.16472.qm@web33414.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <587130.16472.qm@web33414.mail.mud.yahoo.com>


I'd put the odds at something far lower than the examples you give.

I'm not aware of ANY case in which HVR results were tied to a medical
issue, so I'd put those odds at something like 1-in-100 million.

The only y-chromosome issue raised so far has been the hypothetical
possibility that an AZF deletion might be detected by a Y-STR test
and that such a deletion might be related to fertility issues.
Again, the odds that a particular test would uncover something of
interest would be 1-in-10 million.

Add in the low probability that such a result would ever get reported
to an insurance company (at least one lab has said that they would
not report a y-STR test result suggesting an AZF deletion without
consulting the participant first), and it really seems like a
spurious argument.

Vince




On Mar 21, 2007, at 5:36 PM, Peter J. Roberts wrote:

> Thank you for your reply. I agree with you. However, it is my
> understanding that the Y chromosome has virtually no medical
> value. It is also my understanding that mtDNA HVR1 and HVR2 have
> very little medical value. Medical DNA tests are usually looking
> at other chromosomes than the Y. My question is how often should
> we expect mtDNA (HVR1 and HVR2) results to indicate a medical
> problem (e.g. about 1 in 500?) and how often should we expect to Y
> chromosome results to indicate infertility (e.g. about 1 in 2,000?).

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