23 And Me

Well worth the money for the medical information. The technology is amazing and to see my own personal genetic risk factors in black and white was a real eye opener.
That being said, the sad truth is that most of their customers do not participate in the relative finder option, which is mostly why I signed up. They throw around tag lines like «Grow your family tree like never before», «find and connect with cousins», and «Revolutionary tools to complete your ancestry with your DNA»… but they don’t mention that 98% of your matches never bothered to fill in their profile and won’t respond to messages. Sure, you’ll see hundreds and hundreds of matches that are a Pink head marked Female or a Blue head marked Male along with an estimate of your kinship (4^th cousins, etc), but that’s it. If they don’t respond to your introductory message, you have nothing to go on. The way 23andMe presents the ancestry feature in their advertising is as if it is a sure thing that their client base is filled with people with an interest in genealogy, ready and waiting to find out if you and they share the same great-​great-​great-​great-​great-​grandmother.
I think there is mass confusion over what information is shared with matches when you accept a relative finder invite that leads people to believe there will be privacy concerns so they don’t participate, but in fact it is nothing like that. No one gets your data unless you choose to download and export that file on your own. No one gets your health data unless you decide to give it to them. What you do get is the chance to communicate and try to find out who your common ancestor is.
I wish they had made it clear that only a fraction of their customers actively use the service for genealogy purposes. I have many relations in the 3^rd to 6^th cousin range using the service, but since so few people participate in the genealogical portion of the service, I’m not getting any family tree mysteries solved anytime soon.
I should also note that those who do make use of the ancestry features are very involved in ancestry and genealogy … but it’s such a small fraction of the users. Most people just get their medical results and never return. It’s too bad because this could have been THE go-​to service for serious genealogists.

While I originally had 23andme’s genetic testing done just out of curiosity, the information it provided ended up being a life-​saver of sorts for me recently. The test had shown a gene mutation linked to DVT, and that information proved crucial in having the physicians not dismissing a recent episode of leg pain that was not associated with other usual symptoms of DVT and where the initial doppler ultrasound was negative. The information from 23andme and thus my insistence resulted in my PCP agreeing to a re-​test and led to a detection of DVT some days later, and a proper medication régime. Without that I would have continued going around with the risk of fatal embolism.
In short, this has turned out to be one of the best investment of $ 99 + $ 5/​month I have spent, and made me a firm believer in the value of knowing one’s genetic risk factors. 23andme has its share of flaws (e.g. its ancestry feature is largely useless for me, being a recent non-​caucasian immigrant, and its database of associations with risk factors has poor coverage for non-​caucasian population), but services like these hold a lot of value and promise.

The worst customer service I’ve ever experienced. I keep emailing them with basic questions and nobody would respond back. Their genealogy features are almost useless. I’ve been creating an excel spreadsheet to track if any of the relatives match me on the same DNA segments and thus match each other. That could be easily resolved by grouping the relatives in groups based on whether or not they are related to each other. Today I tried to contact them for the 4^th time hoping for an answer on my Mom’s online registration. I wish a better competitor would come along.

There is no way to cancel the monthly Personal Genome Service. Is this company going under?
When you order a DNA test kit, you are required to sign up for a year’s worth of monthly Personal Genome Service. The year is up so I’m trying to cancel the service. But there’s no way to cancel:
— There’s no way to cancel on website.
— I sent an email 4 days ago; no response.
— I left a voicemail 4 days ago; no response.

I’ve bought twelve test kits from 23andme, and have spent hundreds of hours on the site, so this is an informed opinion.
This company, which presumedly sells a web service, either does not have the technical expertise to actually keep a web site running, or simply does not care about their consumer experience.
What do you get for your $ 100 or more? A barely usable and sometimes completely unusable service impaired primarily by its speed. Page renders range from several seconds to never.
Secondarily, once you get past the gimmicks, and assuming you can get the pages to actually load, the company is impaired by a very poor Human Interaction design. They have made almost no enhancements to that design in two years now. The site gets slower and slower, and although their information pool is growing, they fail to fix even the most prominent bugs while still offering no enhancement to the user experience.
They may have good science behind their work, and they may have good people working there. But none of it is worth a damn if the website that makes that work available to users is prioritized below everything else, and even worse if this is simply a matter of technical incompetence.
My advice: if your interest is genealogical, give your money to familytreedna instead. if your interest is health or entertainment, wait until a reasonable viable competitor comes along.

Totally gimmicky and not helpful. I’m not adopted so i have information on my background and i have certain health problems. as i compare the results to what i already know, i say «NBD» (no big deal). and if i didn’t know my history, i would still say NBD because the results across people don’t seem to be THAT different. And the statistics are somewhat non-​compelling.
Totally NOT WORTH the money, especially the fact that they make you sign up for monthly subscription. Would not recommend to my family/​friends to sign up.

Hi all :),
Via DNA testing, I discovered that I am really an alien mutant superbeing from another universe (note: Think the movie «The Fifth Element»)
WITH AN IQ
over 3,141,592,653,589,793,238,4626,433 8,3279,5028,8419,7169,3993,7510…nah…
I am just a slightly flawed rather boring human being… at least, based on my spit! (e.g.- note the misplaced commas in the Pi number sequence :)
«23 And Me» continues to impress me, with periodic email & web updates on new developments that may affect me, wifey, or others.
BUT THEY HAVE YET TO IDENTIFY A « Unilocal» GENE… TOO BAD :)
I continue to check my profile for updates every few months and they seem to have almost always added new useful info & features. I now know relative risk level for dozens of possible diseases, as well as, drug sensitivities, or addiction potential (I now know that I could potentially be a Heroin Fanatic, so I guess I should avoid Heroin :). Since our genes code for so many things, the information & it’s usefulness will increase dramatically over time.
I also found out that I have an increased risk of possibly developing Macular Degeneration as I age. Since this can lead to blindness, I have increased my visits to a good eye doctor. I try to get periodic pics of my Retina, which shows the healthy of my blood vessels (e.g. if Hypertension or High Cholesterol is affecting them), the health of the Retina itself (i.e.- signs of detachment, de-​pigmentation), and the health of my optic disc. As they say, the eye is the gate to your «soul»…but it also can reflect the state of your general health.
Most importantly, I am trying to eat more Lutein, Zeaxanthine (I challenge you to say Zeaxanthine fast three times) & other nutrients that have been shown in recent good clinic studies to slow the development of this serious disease. It is simple to eat more of certain green leafy veges such as Kale, Spinach, Dandelions, Sweet Potato, etc. & Paprika.
Other sources of Lutein (i.e. Goji) are not cost effective and a «faddish» rip off IMO.
I am hoping that someone will start making Zeaxanthine fortified wine… I would be all over that :)
The linking up with 4−6^th cousin thing has not been too useful, since there are zillions of them, & so far no remote «cousins» have been all that interesting (and there are ZERO Unilocalers! among them)… And neither Bill Gates nor Warren have contacted me yet.
That part of the service is a bit like a «Genetic F@ceb00K» yuck :)
BTW-​IMHO Hiromi N’s review is excellent & we should thank her for sharing such a helpful personal story.
Anyway, I continue to find it a very useful resource for disease prevention, which is a extremely valuable tool that is not available to Primary Care Doctors, nor does insurance cover it. Most MD’s are still stuck in the «Dark Ages». Believe me… I know this both personally & professionally.
Again, as Hiromi has pointed out, it only gives you the relative risk based on the available research. The good thing is that they also inform you of this and the «strength» of the underlying research.
In general: More good well designed peer reviewed genetic/​medical research studies= better risk assessment.
Apparently by doing several volunteer surveys, I helped make «pretty amazing DNA discoveries» (just in my spare-time…maybe I am a «Super-​being after all :)
So they recently sent me the following «thank you» email, which you may find useful if you want to try it yourself:
«Dear Paul,
Thanks to you we’ve made some pretty amazing DNA discoveries — from fun findings on curly hair and detached earlobes you can share at parties, to groundbreaking health-​related discoveries about DNA and Parkinson’s disease.
We’d like to thank you for your participation in research. Every survey question you answer allows us to push for new discoveries. The more people who participate, the more cool stuff we can find, and the more we can share with you and the rest of the world!
To show our appreciation and to encourage others to join in this research revolution we are giving you a $ 50 coupon that you can share with as many people as you like. This coupon expires in 7 days (August 9, 2011) so make sure you get the word out fast.
Thanks a million! You rock!
The 23andMe Team
To use this coupon, visit our online store and add an order to your cart. Click «I have a discount code» and enter the code below.
Coupon Code: BQ8ABT

I’m adopted. I have very little information about my biological parents, except that my mother was Okinawan and my father was believed to have been an American GI. Therefore, I’ve been wrestling with questions about ancestry & health almost my entire life.
Also, please note, I work at Genentech and although, I have a scientific background, I got a D in Genetics the first time that I took it in undergraduate school and barely a B the second time that I took it. Therefore, I’m on an EQUAL footing as anyone who has little to no scientific knowledge about the details of genetic testing. I mean, I know enough to know that I have 23 pairs of chromosomes and that’s about it.
I purchased a kit at the urging of my ex-​boyfriend, who totally understood my deep fear about the unknown boxes that I checked on those medical forms about ancestry at my health care providers’ offices. Curiosity also made up part of my decision to purchase the kit, which was on sale at the time (for the anniversary of the date of discovery of DNA) for $ 99.
I actually almost forgot to test it and the time period of returning the specimen had lapsed. Luckily, the kit had not expired and the 23 and me customer service agreed to let me send in the kit and they would still run the analysis, free of any ADDITIONAL charge (like having to purchase an entirely new kit).
Voila, I got my test results back in about 6 weeks (the website says 6 – 8 weeks is the norm).
Okay, so Paul M did a good run down of the steps (minus steps 4 – 6) *LOL*.
The process is relatively painless (except actually paying for the kit & processing).
You register the kit online (their website is cool and is constantly adding more information, including BASIC Genetics 101 information for people like me to understand how Genetic testing works).
It involves you actually taking the time to spit into the cup. They suggest that you do it first thing in the morning, to get the most cells in the specimen. The spitting takes the longest time, b/​c believe it or not 2 milliliters may not SEEM like a lot, but it took me a good 10 minutes to hit the mark on the test tube. Ick. Not a fun thing to do if you are running late for work *hehe*
Just keep in mind, like the website says, the company can provide you”…with genetic information, but does not sequence your entire genome or perform predictive or diagnostic tests…”. So, if you are interested in learning about your risk of developing a certain disease based on your genotype, this is an interesting tool. Just be aware that the information provided simply provides clients with an IDEA if your genotype has an INCREASED chance of developing a certain disease but isn’t necessarily a definitive predictor that you will develop a disease, in most cases.
Also, if you are a WOMAN, interested in learning more about where you came from, the test results can only tell you about you MATERNAL line of heredity via mitochondrial DNA analysis. Yet, for adoptees, like me, who do not KNOW their biological father, this test cannot help discover anything about the paternal line. As stated on the website, «Because your paternal line is determined by the genetics of the Y-​chromosome — there is no way to trace a woman’s paternal haplogroup using her own DNA. But if a woman’s father, brother or paternal uncle is also a user of 23andMe, that person’s paternal line will be the same as hers».
So, while interesting, since I already knew that my biological mother was Okinawan, this was not as helpful for genealogy purposes.
SO, there you go. My very lengthy review. I guess additional information can’t hurt me. I will definitely follow up with my current physician with some of the results.
I’m not exactly sure HOW to use it as a tool right now. Must admit, I found it entertaining, but not sure how to interpret it, yet.
Hope that this helps some people out there. If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me!