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Inherited condition

An inherited condition is caused wholly or partly by a change in genetic material that can be passed on within a family. Inheritance is not an all-or-nothing prediction: the pattern of inheritance, likelihood, severity and age of onset vary. Discussing your family history, a medical assessment, informed consent and genetic counselling help establish whether testing is useful and what a result can and cannot tell you.

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  • Inherited conditions form a broad group. The genes involved, inheritance, symptoms, age of onset and treatment options vary widely.
  • A DNA result must be interpreted alongside symptoms, family history and other investigations. A line on a laboratory report rarely provides the whole answer.
  • Testing may help provide certainty, guide prevention or inform treatment choices. It may also create uncertainty or reveal information about relatives that no one was prepared for.
  • Genetic counselling helps before and after a test with its medical meaning, probabilities, emotions, privacy and choices involving family and pregnancy.
  • An inherited predisposition is no one's fault. People do not choose their genes, and a result says nothing about someone's worth, responsibility or future opportunities.

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Further reading

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P
Planning pregnancy and inherited conditionsIf you are planning pregnancy and you, your partner or family have an inherited condition, genetic counselling before pregnancy can clarify individual risks and options. Carrier screening, prenatal screening, diagnostic testing and PGT answer different questions, and no test guarantees a child without a condition.
D
DNA testing for medicinesDNA testing for medicines, also called pharmacogenetics, examines variants that can influence how certain medicines are processed or work. For some well-studied combinations, the result can help guide the choice of medicine or dose, but does not predict with certainty whether a medicine will work or cause side effects.
H
Health checks and testsA health test may detect a risk or disease before symptoms appear, but not every test is useful for everyone. A result may be a false positive or false negative and lead to unnecessary further tests or false reassurance. Age, personal risks, symptoms and whether early treatment really helps should determine which screening is worthwhile.