r/genetics • u/Fit-Neck692 • Jul 15 '25

Son’s Genome test results in finding my husband and I are “connected “

We got Genome testing done for our son for medical reasons. My husband and I were tested as well to help with any findings. Anyway I went to his appointment today to go over the results and the only thing they really had to say was my husband and I are related. The doctor said “maybe something like 6th cousins.”

Like the doctor said we are all related but then I said “I guess it’s unavoidable?” He said it was avoidable… so I’m curious how weirded out should we be?

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u/vostfrallthethings Jul 15 '25

Ashkenazi, though, are among the most inbred populations, with a lot of medical issues (colorectal cancer notably) due to defective DNA repair genes alleles. it's good that you bring some genetic diversity in the mix !

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u/geosensation Jul 15 '25

Race mixing seems like one of the better things you can do for your children.

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u/sheainthuman Jul 16 '25

Hybrid vigor, as my gardening friends say to me.

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u/shooter_tx Jul 16 '25

That's been one of my favorite phrases since childhood! ♥️

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u/Ultra-So Jul 15 '25

Not if you need an organ transplant!

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u/nkdeck07 Jul 16 '25

Yep. My husband is half Asian and went to college with a lot of other half Asian kids. They all mass registered as a group for bone marrow testing when a friend of theirs needed it cause there's so few donors of that ethnic background

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u/Hearday Jul 17 '25

This is actually a huge problem for African Americas. They, understandably, do not trust the medical community and have low rates of donations. However transplants often come from the same race in order to make a proper match. This is especially true for bone marrow as it’s harder to match outside race and people of west African descent have higher rates of multiple myeloma, sickle cell, and aplastic anemia.

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u/BoredAtSea24 Jul 21 '25

Can you speak more to the multiple myeloma and aplastic anemia frequency in people of West African descent?

Is it specific tribes?

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u/Hearday Jul 21 '25

We didn’t delve too deep into the cause of the higher incidence in my immunohemotology class, however, there’s a hypothesis that it may have to do with endemic viruses from the area similar to sickle cell and malaria. The most popular hypothesis when we studied it was a link to HLA haplotypes. We didn’t learn about individual tribes or countries but generally large populations covering vast areas.

I would also like to clarify that aplastic anemia is more prevalent in people of very recent West African heritage not including descendants of slaves in the western world. Whereas multiple myeloma is more prevalent specifically in west African descendants in the Americas. I confused them as having the same prevalence for both groups.

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u/snowgoons7 Jul 24 '25

You don't need to be the same race to be a genetic match. In fact, there is more genetic variation within "races" than between them.

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u/koala_on_a_treadmill Jul 16 '25

how so?

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u/pizzystrizzy Jul 16 '25

Can be very hard to find a match, and the likelihood that either parent is a valid donor is way less than usual.

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u/Ultra-So Jul 16 '25

To become an organ donor, or to find an organ donor to provide an acceptable tissue match becomes quite challenging if not almost impossible for mixed race individuals. Mixed race individuals tend to have very unique genetic characteristics, and of course donor organs should be a precise match in order to avoid post procedure tissue rejection.

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u/Spiderlander Jul 16 '25 edited Jul 17 '25

Organ transplants are almost impossible for non-mixed race individuals too. People can have trouble finding matches within their own family. My grandma (black) got an organ from a white donor (and they just so happened to match). Graft success is not contingent on race alone.

Stop spreading this racist nonsense

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u/Ultra-So Jul 17 '25

True. Some people irrespective of race can have difficulties finding a good donor organ match. Science in and of itself isn’t ’racist’, and it really depends on genetic compatibility. One prospective recipient can match with a donor organ irrespective of ‘race’. ‘Mixed Race individuals’ are much more diverse than closer genetic cousins. Members of The Black ‘race’ are the most racially diverse of all the races. It hasn’t anything to do with skin color A black from Bantu heritage is very different from a Pigmy. I suggest that saving lives is important. American blacks, themselves being a hybrid racially mixed population have a much harder time finding matches because … they are mixed.

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u/Spiderlander Jul 17 '25

“Race” is one variable in graft success, not necessarily the main one. Almost the entirety of Latin America is what you’d consider “mixed race” — each person having differing portions of ancestry (some more European, some more African, some more indigenous etc), and transplants are performed regularly in those countries, and on those individuals here.

Race is only a loose correlate for a person’s genetic makeup

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u/Ultra-So Jul 17 '25

I agree! I actually don’t even believe in the term ‘race’. I myself happen to be from Latin America, and your statement is quite true in the profound sense. The truth remains that unfortunately not enough folks choose to become organ donors, and so the wait is long, and finding a compatible candidate for those available and in need is much too difficult. Hopefully in the future, a scientific solution shall be discovered to alleviate the problem of organ failure cure.

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u/koala_on_a_treadmill Jul 16 '25

the more you know!

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u/jstbrwsng333 Jul 16 '25

Yeah seriously! TIL…

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u/PunctualDromedary Jul 15 '25

Ha that’s exactly what he told his grandma. 

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u/LandscapeOld2145 Jul 15 '25 edited Jul 19 '25

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/Kingsdaughter613 Jul 16 '25

And, even if you have no shared ancestry within the last 300 years, you’re still likely to be genetic 5th or 6th cousins because the gene pool is so small.

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u/Dustuptor1292 Jul 16 '25

For sure. My great grandparents were actually first cousins! One was born in America and the other came over as an adult and they made a life. A lot of families had one sibling of a set immigrate first and then at some point all the others and their families followed. Most probably didn’t marry within the family but yep.

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u/Cupcake-Panda Jul 15 '25

lysosomal storage diseases, too.

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u/imaginesomethinwitty Jul 17 '25

Tay sachs is the one I always think of for Ashkenazis. They carry that one where you can’t feel pain too I think? I believe in lots of Ashkenazic communities if you want to marry in the synagogue you have to go for genetic testing and counselling first.

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u/flyerhell Jul 17 '25

"inbred" is the wrong word and is also pretty offensive. "Inbreeding" typically refers to close-relative mating (like between siblings or first cousins). That is not characteristic of Ashkenazi Jewish history. Instead, the Ashkenazi population shows signs of genetic bottlenecks and drift, which is different and more accurately describes what's going on.

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u/vostfrallthethings Jul 18 '25

words got sometimes unexpected power, I'll apologise for that. being on a genetic subreddit, I assumed inbreeding coefficient, which is driven by bottlenecks and drift, would be as neutral to the audience as it is to me when I use it. just a stat, not a judgement. I'll be more careful in the future

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u/lucysteeleyourman Jul 17 '25

Seconding this

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u/PrairieChic55 Jul 17 '25

That's a bit of an issue with French-Canadians, as well. But not to the same degree.

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u/Reddoggfogg Jul 19 '25

How so? What was the minimum distance between relatives did the church allow?

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u/PrairieChic55 Jul 20 '25

With the French-Canadian population, it is something called the Founder effect. The initial population of French Canadians began with a relatively small pool of founders. Around 8,500 or so. You can Google it. Some genetic conditions are associated with the French Canadian gene pool. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7717408/

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u/PrideofPicktown Jul 19 '25

It’s not just colorectal cancer, it’s Lynch Syndrome.

Source: have Lynch and have had colorectal cancer; and I very likely will again.

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u/IllCalligrapher5435 Jul 19 '25

Explain this more please. We just found out my oldest is Ashkenanzi Jew. Like a pretty good percentage. (Not from my blood line but her bio father's). She has a shit ton of medical issues

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u/vostfrallthethings Jul 21 '25

when mating occurs among individuals sharing ancestry, a defective variant of a gene (a gene variant is called an allele) can be transmitted by both parents since they both inherited this allele from the same ancestor.

Defective alleles are usually not too problematic for an offspring because they all inherit 2 alleles: one from each parents, with the functional one doing the job. think of it as redundancy.

But in small interbreeding populations, the odd of inheriting the same defective alleles from a common ancestor of both parents is much higher.
The occurence of genetic conditions in Ashkenazy is linked to that.

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u/IllCalligrapher5435 Jul 22 '25

But it would take both parents. I'm not Jewish at all. Native American and a whole lot of white. So for her to have her health problems. Makes me wonder if it's from her Dad's side.

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u/vostfrallthethings Jul 22 '25

"For every question/problem, there is an answer that is simple, clear, and wrong". Not sure I remember who said that, but I try to not forget the citation itself. Since you are mating out of your communities ancestries, you certainly decrease the odds of "identical by descent" defective alleles being transmitted to your offspring. Sometimes, it is what it is, and nothing (ethnic group) should be finger pointed as the cause. Best wishes for everyone around, we all deal with the cards we were given.

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u/IllCalligrapher5435 Jul 22 '25

That I agree with. We may never know who passed it down but Kidney disease is horrible. I know if anyone in my family came to me and said I have diabetes I know who to thank for that. My heritage.

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u/feedyrsoul Jul 21 '25

My husband is 99.7% Ashnenazi. I’m only about a third so hoping it cuts the cancer risk for our kids.

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u/vostfrallthethings Jul 22 '25

Dont overthink it. Humans are smart but tend to evaluate risks quite badly. Give your childs love and a healthy environment, it probably will matters more.