23andMe DNA Test - Health + Ancestry Personal Genetic Service - 75+ Online Reports

I had DNA analysis from 23andme. My wife had DNA analysis from both Ancestry and 23andme. This review is my comparison of the two. I highly recommend secondary analysis of your results by Promethease, see further discussion at end of this review. Basically I like 23andme. If 23andme offers a lower cost ancestry only test, this is OK. For developing an ancestry tree, Ancestry.com is MUCH better IF you signup separately for Ancestry's subscription search service.

TAKING TEST and SIGNUP – Very similar test taking. 23’s signup was more secure. Anc’s was easier, but they automatically put my wife’s test on my previously existing Ancestry account.

Waiting on RESULTS – Both send emails confirming sample receipt and when results were available. After logon, 23 provided step by step progress reports on the analysis process. The analysis process itself took about 10 days, including a holiday weekend. Total wait time was 3-4 weeks. Anc took 5 or so days longer than 23.

WEB SITE SECURITY – 23 is better. 23 requires a typical logon and password to get to the site. Anc automatically remembers your logon and password and just opens up when you go to the site. However, actually downloading your DNA file from Anc requires a full sign-on and confirmation link via your e-mail..

Ethnic Origin Analysis – 23 is much better (more correct). Anc included excessive Scandinavian content. 23’s discussion and analysis tools are much better.

DNA RELATIVE IDENTIFICATION – Recognizing that allocation of relatives to 1st, 2nd and 3rd cousins is somewhat imprecise. For my wife, 23 identified 4 second cousins and about 32 third cousins. Anc identified 1 first cousin, 2 second cousins and 9 third cousins. 23 also has ‘cousins’ outside the USA (in my case in the UK) which are really valuable contacts for ancestry searching. The web site does not directly identify a cousin’s location but you can easily guess this from supplementary info optionally provided by the cousin on 23’s site.

DNA RELATIVE CONTACT and ANALYSIS – Anc provides the e-mail for a contact and shared ancestors for each DNA relative. You get more when you pay for their regular Ancestry services, see below. 23 provides an internal messaging application for communicating with contacts. The application works but is rudimentary and unsuitable for more than brief messages (especially with MS Edge); exchanging e-mail address’s after contact is more satisfying. 23 has a couple levels of ‘sharing’ (aka privacy). If you enable sharing you have reasonably useful (but somewhat clunky, but better than Anc) tools to compare the DNA analysis of relatives who also share. This helps to group relatives from particular ancestors. I had 3 relatives contact me on 23. My wife has had no contacts via either 23 or Anc.

Anc provides a powerful tree searching tool IF you subscribe to the regular Ancestry service. This is expensive, in the range of $200/year or more. Given the low to moderate ‘tools’ in their basic DNA service, I view their DNA analysis as an (effective) teaser for their subscription service. UPDATE: I did signup for the Ancestry services and they are great. Specifically, with a subscription their DNA site shows a contacts pedigree chart if that contact already has built an Anc family tree. This is MASSIVELY better than 23's unsorted list of surnames. When you search for a particular name it searches all of the connected family trees - this is exceptionally useful.

I have problems with some browsers not opening some Anc connected data (document images). Google Chrome seems the most reliable.

MEDICAL INFO – Anc provides no medical info. In late 2016 23 had two test options - $100 for just the ancestry service and $200 for ancestry plus medical. The medical info provide by 23 is interesting but for most people, currently not very useful. The medical items they are allowed to report on by the FDA are limited to 40 or so rare genetic conditions-not useful for most people. UPDATE-As of April 2017, 23 now reports on your risk of 4 medical conditions, including Alzheimers. Their discussion/explanation of your risks for these conditions is specifically approved by the FDA and is reasonably understandable, informative, and useful.

If you are so inclined, you can participate (answer a lot of online questions) in 23’s medical research. This is probably 20 ten minute questions sessions. I did this and feel like it was useful for medical research.

Analysis of you DNA results by Promethease, a third party service, provides excellent medical info.

CONNECTION to PROMETHEASE – Promethease (Prom) is a third party service that assess’s your detailed DNA results from either 23 or Anc and provides a detailed medical risk report. Go to the Prom site to get started. The connection from Prom to 23 is especially easy. For Anc you have to separately download from Anc and upload to Prom which is also not too difficult. Cost is $5 per report.

PROMETHEASE RESULTS –Prom generates 20,000 or so reports (hits) from the 700,000 or so genes that are tested by 23 and Anc. 23 and Anc test a different set of genes, although they mostly overlap. For my wife’s test from both 23 and Anc the corresponding Prom reports were about 85% the same for the 40 most significant hits (Prom magnitude 2.5 and above). There were 5 or 6 unique hits in the top 40 for each report. I judge that the unique hits were about equally important between 23 and Anc.

USING PROMETHEASE – IMPORTANT – Use of general DNA analysis to identify general medical conditions is an emerging (not well developed) technology/business. My guess is that the info provided by Prom is perhaps 30% or so of what will be available in 10 years or so. I regard the info provide as indicative, definitely not complete and possibly incorrect (due to either testing error or interpretation error).

Having said that, it is interesting, likely useful and potentially lifesaving. The information will be disturbing (negative), but in most cases not surprising. I think most people will be able to absorb the info without getting too stressed out. If you are a hypochondriac, this could be a problem. If you want a chance of good news, you can write down the stuff your are concerned about ahead of time, and then see if they actually show up.

My comments for using the report are:
• Make sure you download a copy to your PC for future reference, don’t just look at it online.
• After you figure out how to use the report, move the '0' Magnitude slider up to a range of 2.5 or so. This will limit you to the top 40 or so hits. Then go down to the bottom of the report and hit the '2X' bar a few times to see all the hits.
• You can then hit the ‘Table’ button at the top and print a summary of the hits to help see the big picture. You can also open this table in Excel and modify/save it for a more useful table. If you do this, add a Frequency column if it's not already there.
• To me, after Magnitude, the most important factor is ‘Frequency’. This is what percentage of the target population has this condition. If its around 40% or higher, I think it’s already ‘dialed in’ to the normal medical process – it is something your doctor and the medical community will look for in any case. Most of the hits fall into this category. If it’s less than 10%, it’s likely not on your doctors radar screen and you will want to consider if it’s worth mentioning to your doctor.
• The second most useful item is the relative increased risk in the item discussion. Recognize that the absolute risk is not provided – this could be 1 in 100,000, so a 1.1 relative risk is almost meaningless. On the other hand I looked up AMD (Age Related Macular Degeneration-eye problems) on the internet; it affects 1 in 3 to 5 people by age 80, so 2x risk is really significant. Good to know this ahead of time.
• After you assess the top 40, which takes a while, you can expand the Magnitude to it’s full range. Then click on ‘Topics’ and click on sub topics of interest and see if any common concerns emerge. Do the same for ‘Medical Conditions’. This seems like a lot of work but only takes an hour or 2 once you get started. For me the common themes seem to be heart disease, Alzheimer’s and Rheumatoid arthritis – none of which are a surprise.
- When you find something that might be relevant you NEED to do supplemental research on the Internet. The Prom report is a brief and simple identification. Fuller understanding can significantly change (reduce?) your concern for the issue. Be aware that there are 'hypochondriac' web site for some of these issues. I like to start with Wiki, Mayo Clinic and WebMD.
• Again, remember this is an emerging technology, so the results will change from year to year for a while. I guess that in 10 years it will be a routine consideration in a physical. I might resubmit to Promethease in a year or two to see what’s changed.

This DNA test from 23andMe gives you a huge amount of raw data. If you're looking for medical information (not just ancestry), you are getting your money's worth. However, due to FDA regulations, they aren't allowed to interpret it for you beyond some very basic (and frankly unhelpful) reports. This is true for all DNA testing companies when it comes to medical information. The good news is that you can upload your 23andMe data to other websites and receive detailed reports. Promethease.com gives you detailed reporting for just $5 - everything from vulnerabilities to diseases, to genes associated with personality traits. Another commenter mentioned the MTHFR mutations, which are associated with many chronic illnesses. Geneticgenie.org will run your 23andMe results specifically related to these genes, and the report is free. And if you can afford it, the best way to interpret your results is to make an appointment with a genetic counselor, who you can find through NSGC.org. So, you're paying for the data with this test, and it's just a few extra steps to understand the data.

The testing is fairly simple: You receive a test vial (log in and register it on their website) and provide saliva up to the control line. Make sure you don't eat or drink for 30 to 45 minutes before providing your saliva sample. It is best not to brush teeth beforehand since it will only wash away valuable DNA and you want to ensure your sample has enough to process. Yes I had a few failed kits in my life and that set us back months of getting results on those kits. Anyway it’s fairly simple to provide saliva samples. Simple enough I had my 5 1/2 year old done and she was the easiest one to process. Then you place the kit back into included return envelope and wait for about 6 to 8 weeks for it to process. All while keeping tabs of the process online as each step finishes.

I started using 23andme in 2012 before the FDA had gotten nasty and demanded they stop providing such detailed health analysis. Most of the kits I purchased (all but 2) included the ancestry with health but the ancestry portion was the sole purpose for us using 23andme services. I have tested both of my parents, my two children, two paternal aunts, my daughter's paternal grandmother as well as myself and two cousins whom I tested to confirm our relationship. If you test at least one parent, you can easily sort matches that are shared with that parent to determine which matches are maternal and paternal. Since both my parents have tested mine literally shows who matches me from each side and my children can sort their matches based on me being tested too.

My paternal grandfather died in 1995 and took with him the secret of his past. He had ran away as a young boy and changed his name so we knew him only by the name he had taken. My family always yearned to know more about my grandfather's past but he had endured some sort of trauma or something and for whatever reason chose to never speak of it again. So we grew up only knowing half my father's ancestry - that of his mother.

After my grandfather died, I set out on a mission to try to figure out more about his past and his identity. I sent off for birth and school records and hit one dead-end after another trying to prove he was who he said he was. I spent hours going over census data on Ancestry's website, writing to courthouses across the country. The evidence pointed to the conclusion he was not who he said he was and so I had nothing solid to go by. Until 17 years into chasing cold trails, I discovered ancestry type DNA testing. I figured it wouldn't hurt to order my dad a kit and see where that would take us. If I could just find one close enough match then maybe it would give us a good lead on figuring out my grandfather's real surname.

After waiting for what seemed like months (it was actually only about 6 weeks) my dad's DNA was online (on 23andme’s secure site) and accessible along with all his many matches - which were basically cousins at various degrees of distance. It was one cousin (a predicted second cousin) in particular that gave me access to their family tree and actually dove in with me searching for clues that would lead us to my grandfather.

Just 6 months into researching my father's DNA, I found my grandfather's family and figured out who he really was. I wanted to ensure that my information was correct and so I contacted the daughters to the man I believed to be my grandfather's brother and offered to test them both. Their test results confirmed they were indeed our 1st cousins. I have since been in contact with close and distant family via this newly discovered paternal side and even obtained a copy of my grandfather's family surname book. His absence was even recorded in the book! I solved an 83+ year mystery and gained a family I longed my entire life to know about. I cannot be more thankful that these tests are available and that it gives us such ability to solve things that seem impossible.

Granted this all sounds way easier than it was and in all honesty it took planning and sorting and meticulous record-keeping to rule out my father's maternal matches. I literally mapped my father's DNA and researched every match labeling in an Excel document, which chromosome location that relative fit and what surnames fit within those matches. It’s given me new found respect and interest in knowing about each and every ancestor that left their mark within our DNA. It’s time-consuming, rewarding and addicting. I can say that with all honesty as I now manage 15+ kits on various DNA web sites. I tested myself and both parents on 23andme as well as AncestryDNA and Dad was also tested on FTDNA but I met my most useful matches on 23andme. It was on 23andme that I found the best ability to pour over chromosomes researching every detail I could.

Oddly between 23andme and Ancestry their tests show a discrepancy in ethnicity estimates. One shows that my dad has a tiny trace of Native American (23andme) yet AncestryDNA does not show any trace whatsoever of Native American. My son has confirmed Native American and was only tested on 23andme and his percentage came back at nearly exact what is on his BIA blood quantum card. So I lean in feeling more comfortable with 23andme’s ethnicity estimates.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: You can take your raw data (once your DNA is processed) and download it from any of these DNA testing sites and upload them for free to GEDmatch. That site allows you to cross compare other matches on there from all the DNA sites. As long as others have their data on their too you can look at those matches and even see where the match is on individual chromosomes, etc. It’s a great tool to utilize along with your DNA testing sites.

FINAL THOUGHT: If you are looking to solve a mystery, 23andme is great. If you are looking to just fill in a family tree and you have a paid Ancestry membership or you are willing to pay for it, I would also suggest AncestryDNA. AncestryDNA gives you immediate access to your matches’ trees and you can in turn build on your own tree with the information. But if you are NOT a paid member to Ancestry, their AncestryDNA features are limited. I personally think its poor business practice for Ancestry to force people who already fork over money for the DNA kits to further pay to utilize services that should be totally included within the purchase of the kit. With 23andme, there are no additional hidden usage fees.

Whichever one you choose, be prepared to discover a new you.