Sephardic JEW Genetic Testing Now Available
For years, when we got inquiries from Sephardi or Mizrahi patients about preconception genetic testing, we would respond that there is currently no testing panel as there is for our Ashkenazi patients. And we would feel bad about that because we know that, like in many other ethnicities, there are genetic diseases which are common in Sephardi and Mizrahi populations too.
When we hosted a genetic testing event at Yeshiva University in 2013, our flyer included a call-out to the Sephardi students to contact us privately and not to register for the event.
Since the genetics for Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews differ by country of origin (and there many countries with Jews), genetics labs never really made it a priority to develop testing panels. After all, why should they develop tests that a tiny number of people will actually need?
We started offering a new panel that was developed for Jews of all backgrounds.
This new panel is made of 96 diseases;48 of them are common in Ashkenazis, 38 in Sephardi/Mizrahis,and 10 overlap between the groups (it is a very large panel!).
Here are some of the things that we have been finding since we upgraded:*''Even though we have tripled the amount of diseases on our testing panel, the ‘classic’ Jewish diseases are still ‘classic.’" I would have thought that the more diseases we screen for, we would see a wider array of results, but we have been seeing that those diseases that have been on the panel since the beginning (the common ones, like Tay Sachs and Gaucher) are still the ones that we have been picking up most often.
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People think they know what their ancestry is, but are surprised to find out they may be more mixed than they thought. A patient of ours could have sworn he was 100% Ashkenazi, but he came back as carrier for a disease that is common in Yemenite Jews. When he asked his grandmother if there was something he didn’t know, he learned that he had some North African ancestors!
*We have had a Jewish history lesson for our genetic counselors helpingSephardic JEW Genetic Testing Now Available
For years, when we got inquiries from Sephardi or Mizrahi patients about preconception genetic testing, we would respond that there is currently no testing panel as there is for our Ashkenazi patients. And we would feel bad about that because we know that, like in many other ethnicities, there are genetic diseases which are common in Sephardi and Mizrahi populations too.
When we hosted a genetic testing event at Yeshiva University in 2013, our flyer included a call-out to the Sephardi students to contact us privately and not to register for the event.
Since the genetics for Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews differ by country of origin (and there many countries with Jews), genetics labs never really made it a priority to develop testing panels. After all, why should they develop tests that a tiny number of people will actually need?
We started offering a new panel that was developed for Jews of all backgrounds.
This new panel is made of 96 diseases;48 of them are common in Ashkenazis, 38 in Sephardi/Mizrahis,and 10 overlap between the groups (it is a very large panel!).
Here are some of the things that we have been finding since we upgraded:*''Even though we have tripled the amount of diseases on our testing panel, the ‘classic’ Jewish diseases are still ‘classic.’" I would have thought that the more diseases we screen for, we would see a wider array of results, but we have been seeing that those diseases that have been on the panel since the beginning (the common ones, like Tay Sachs and Gaucher) are still the ones that we have been picking up most often.
-
People think they know what their ancestry is, but are surprised to find out they may be more mixed than they thought. A patient of ours could have sworn he was 100% Ashkenazi, but he came back as carrier for a disease that is common in Yemenite Jews. When he asked his grandmother if there was something he didn’t know, he learned that he had some North African ancestors!
*We have had a Jewish history lesson for our genetic counselors helping them understand the '''different migrations of Jews over the course of history, and how ‘ASHKENAZI’, ‘Sephardi’, and ‘Mizrahi’ JEWS came to be.
*The bottom line is that carrier screening is recommended before contemplating a pregnancy for anyone that is at least¼ Jewish.
It doesn’t make a difference if one has mixed ancestry, if he/she knows that a relative tested negative in the past, or if he/she chooses to affiliate with a movement within Judaism.
*Our genes do not choose to be transmitted only to the “more Jewish” people.
Sauce: https://jewishgenetichealth.wordpress.com/2015/12/01/finally-a-genetic-test-for-sephardi-and-mizrahis-too/