Genetic Testing

Genetic Testing

What is Genetic Testing?
Genetic testing is used to detect faulty alleles which may cause genetic disorders. A person who is genetically tested will then know if they have a specific disorder or are even just carriers of a disorder. This can be useful in many ways but then again there are negative points towards it.
It can also be used to determine a person's ancestry, this meaning they can find who in the family they inherited the disorder from. A person carries two copies of every gene, one inherited from their mother and one from their father. It studies the chromosomes of each individual gene. Also Genetic testing identifies changes in chromosomes, genes, or proteins.
The results of a genetic test can confirm a suspected genetic disorder or help establish whether the person is a carrier and will pass down the disease to the offspring may they decide to have children in the future. Several hundred genetic tests are currently in use, and more are being developed.
Types of genetic testing:
• Prenatal testing: Prenatal testing is used to find changes in a fetus's genes or chromosomes before birth. It is offered to couples with a high risk of having a baby with a genetic disorder. Although, prenatal testing cannot find all the possible disorders the baby may have inherited.
• Carrier testing: Carrier testing is used to identify people who carry one copy of a gene mutation that as to be a carrier only one copy is needed but when there are two copies it causes a genetic disorder. Carrier testing is offered to people who have a family history of a genetic disorder and to people in ethnic groups with an increased risk of specific genetic conditions. If both parents are tested, the test can provide information about a couple's risk of having a child with a genetic condition.
• Diagnostic testing: Diagnostic testing is used to find a specific genetic disorder. In many cases, genetic testing is used to confirm a disorder when a...

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