easyDNA.co.nz Blog

March 5, 2012

All you need to know about prenatal genetic testing

Parental genetic testing, a term rather unheard in earlier days, is very much common practice these days. As majority of women are taking their first step towards parenthood after the age of 35, genetic testing is increasingly gaining popularity.

Need to go in for parental genetic testing

Prior to the age of 35, a woman has minimal chances of having a child with Down’s syndrome. At 35, the risk level increases and there is a probability of the woman having a complicated pregnancy. Prenatal testing in pregnancy becomes very important after 35. Beyond 35, the risk of having this chromosomal abnormality increases drastically, prompting the doctors to suggest that a woman should undergo parental genetic testing, in case they are planning to go for motherhood.

The most prevalent method used for undergoing genetic testing is amniocentesis. This is performed between 16th and 18th month of pregnancy. Chorionic villus sampling that offers earlier detection of chromosomal abnormalities (between 10th and 12th week of pregnancy), is the other method in use. Chorionic villus sampling has a disadvantage when compared to amniocentesis in that it cannot be used to diagnose Neural Tube Defects or NTDs.

Non invasive prenatal sampling methods are currently being researched. Scientists have managed to analyse fetal DNA in a maternal blood sample and from this they have successfully mapped the genetic profile of the unborn child and determine any autoimmune conditions. The test is still not available on the market although non invasive prenatal testing can be used to establish paternity.

Prenatal Genetic Screening and Psychological factors involved

As per a study conducted, the reasons for going in for genetic testing were psychological for most of the women. In case a woman is told following amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling the expected child is to suffer from Down’s syndrome, some women may choose to terminate the pregnancy before the 12th week. Carrying out prenatal genetic testing does raise certain ethical issues.

November 24, 2011

Latest update on Justin Bieber’s paternity Test

Undeterred by the withdrawal of paternity suit filed against him, Justin Bieber takes a paternity test anyway. Bieber states that the story is untrue and nothing like that has ever happened as claimed by Mariah Yeater. Bieber and his team have affirmed that the 17-year-old is not the father of Yeater’s child.

DNA Paternity Test Justin Bieber
Paternity Testing Justin Bieber

Well, in the first place while learning the subject of DNA Paternity test, one needs to understand what it is DNA testing all about and why is such a process conducted.
In simple words, a paternity or parental test is a relationship analysis process, conducted to find out the probability of a biological match with the samples from the alleged father/parent and the child. In order to dispel or confirm the doubts about a biological relationship between two or more people, this method can be utilized. It determines parentage. Paternity testing can be legal, used for immigration, or done in the prenatal phase.

In today’s context, painless DNA samples and highly accurate DNA matching facilities / techniques are made conveniently available, when trying to establish a genetic relationship between 2 or more people. DNA samples from each person will be collected and then analyzed in a laboratory.

Paternity testing is highly reliable; so much so that any other method for determining the paternity of a child is now disused. If the alleged father is the biological of a child, the paternity test result will show a probability of paternity of 99.9% or higher. If on the other hand, the alleged father is not the biological father of the child, the paternity test result will indicate a 0% probability. This is also true, if the alleged father is a very close relative of the child- the test will still, in such cases, be conclusive.

Yeater in one of her signed affidavit claims that she had unprotected sex with Bieber last October and is now assuming to hold Bieber partly responsible for the act. However, following the result of the test, Bieber is considering the options of legal action against her for her paternity test lawsuit.

November 16, 2011

Pregnancy Testing and Symptoms of Pregnancy

Are you pregnant? Do you have any of the tell-tale symptoms of pregnancy? Perhaps, at this point you might want to head to the pharmacy and get yourself a little home kit for pregnancy testing. If you really are pregnant, your body will already have started secreting a hormone known as Human Chorionic Gonadotropin or HCG- this hormone will easily be detected in urine when you do your pregnancy test. But then what, once you have confirmed you are pregnant?

Pregnancy Signs & Symptoms

The list if quite long- in fact the signs and symptoms of pregnancy are too many to list here. Important to note the following:

  • Signs of pregnancy will differ from pregnancy to pregnancy and from person to person
  • Having symptoms of pregnancy does not mean you are pregnant. You might be suffering from an illness.
  • Many symptoms can easily be alleviated or prevented – in other words you do not have to live with the discomfort.
  • Symptoms occur at different stages in pregnancy. Use a pregnancy calculator to know how far along you are in your pregnancy. Pregnancy calculators can help you determine the date of conception (although this cannot be taken as an exact date) as well as your due date.

The most common symptom and closely associated with pregnancy is morning sickness and nausea. Leg cramps and other generalized cramps are also very common. If you go online you can find a pregnancy quiz or questionnaires which will help you define and learn about your symptoms.

What about Prenatal Care?

Prenatal care is an important part of health care; this involves ultrasonography which ensures a health development of the baby via, amongst other things, fetal biometric measurements. Besides, this aspect of prenatal care, the doctor or midwife will also help you with your diet, ensure you are eating well and making the best out of your pregnancy. Prenatal care will enable you to follow step by step your baby’s development and even listen to your baby’s heart beat.

Prenatal DNA Testing

Prenatal DNA testing can either be done to confirm the paternity of the child, or in some countries, it is used as a diagnostic prenatal test routinely done by many pregnant women; this latter example is a test that will help confirm whether an unborn baby suspected to have an autoimmune disease such as Down’s syndrome in an ultrasound actually carries the genes responsible for Down’s Syndrome. Prenatal paternity test and pregnancy testing for autoimmune illnesses will require an OBYGYN to extract a sample of the fetal DNA via amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling.

October 12, 2011

Pregnancy Calculator and Other Methods for Calculating Pregnancy dates

Online pregnancy calculators are there to help pregnant women determine the following:

  • Gestational age, or in other words, the age of the unborn baby (sometimes referred to as fetal age). The counting to determine the gestational age begins from the first day of the woman’s last menstrual period to the current day. The measurement is taken in weeks rather than in days. An ultrasound, a type of screening test routinely carried out after the 14th week can often give a fair idea of gestational age.
  • The due date. Once you have calculated the gestational age and know when you conceived your baby, you just need to count 42 weeks after that date to know when you are expected to give birth. It is important to know that babies are often born after or before their due dates so do not expect your due date to be an exact calculation. In fact, it is likely that you will not give birth on your due date but a few days before or a few days after. A pregnancy lasts from anywhere between 38 and 42 weeks.

Knowing your gestational age and your due date are of course very important. It helps the expectant mother be prepared for the birth at the right time. Moreover, planning is an extremely important part of the whole pregnancy affair. It is indeed lucky that pregnancy calculators are readily available and free online. Have you thought of when you are going to request paternity or maternity leave? Your maternity leave is an important time to (as is paternity leave) to bond with your child- you need to put your career on hold and take on a full time roll as parent- if you do not know your due date you cannot get organized and inform your boss.

Ultrasounds vs Pregnancy Calculators

You will undoubtedly be doing an ultrasound at some stage in your pregnancy as this is a very important screening test to check that the baby you are carrying is developing healthily. From an ultrasound certain measurement can be taken which will enable the doctor overseeing the ultrasound to determine many months old the child is (gestational age). These detailed and rather complex measurements are called fetal biometric measurements and include measurements of the skulls and femur.

A pregnancy calculator is more at hand and convenient as you can work out the date of conceptions, trimesters, due dates and the likes from the easy and comfort of your home. These calculators can be used very early in pregnancy.

Pregnancy calculators are useful if you plan doing a gender prediction test or a prenatal paternity test as these tests can only be done following a certain number of weeks of gestation.

August 25, 2011

Genealogy and Your Family Tree – Where to Start

Filed under: Ancestry Testing Articles — Tags: , , — admin @ 1:21 pm

You are interested in genealogy and want to start creating a family tree.  Where do you start? Not the internet, that’s for sure, or you will suddenly have so much information that you will feel overwhelmed – and the vast majority will be of no use to you. Nor should you pay for any genealogical software or services in the hope that they will do better, because you will be wasting your time – and your money!

In order to trace your ancestry and create a family tree you need some raw material – certainly a lot more than just your name and your parent’s names. However, that is where to start – with you. Record your details, and then those of your parents:  their names and where and when they born. Then your grandparents – you may have to ask around for these details, and will almost certainly have to do so for earlier ancestors if you want a clearer picture of your genealogy.

My Family Tree: Where do I begin?

Visit your elderly relatives, or hold a party and get them all together in one place to discuss the issue. Have some old photograph albums ready and maybe some old wedding or family photographs handy. Then ask each relative what they know about the elder members of your family – also find out their own date and place of birth and their maiden names for females.  Grandparents, old aunts and great aunts would be ideal to question – and the male equivalents, though it’s usually the women that remember the old relatives.

Now you have something to start with- names including maiden names, ages, dates of birth and where they were born. Old addresses would be useful, and you could ask if any have old family bibles where families used to list their children and when they were born. This will remove a lot of the uncertainty when you finally go online or carry out some offline searches in parish church records and so on.

All of this information can make the difference between success and failure, and don’t just stop at the raw details:  try to get into their skin, and find out how they lived their lives, what they worked at and what they did for fun. Really get to know them, and then your family can come alive. A history of real people – not just anonymous names. What made them laugh and cry.

Naturally you will have to be careful that the information is correct, and it’s useful to be able to confirm anything that doesn’t quite ring true. Sometime stories become embellished with time, but generally you should get there in the end. Then you can start searching online. Try to focus on married couples with children, because childless couples or single people are often difficult to follow up. Take the view that you are seeking the parents of those in your family tree – once you have found one parent, search back again for their parents and so on.

Don’t worry if you can’t find the exact dates of birth or death – creating a family tree doesn’t have to have accurate dates – just accuracy in the people involved. What you are doing is trying to prove that the information your elderly relatives gave you is correct, and once you get that confirmed by records you will feel you are really getting somewhere.

Try to work down your direct line of ancestors – those responsible for your life. Aunts and uncles are not direct ancestors because they had nothing to do with your being born: parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on are what you are looking for. Then branch out to the so-called collateral relatives: your cousins, aunts, uncles, great aunts, second cousins and the same relatives of your parents and so on.

There will be gaps – lots of them to begin with, but the farther you get the more the gaps will become easier to fill. The farther back in time you go the more difficult it will get, since online records only go so far.  In the UK, census records stop at 1841 for example and in 1890 for the USA. You may be lucky and find online parish, county or state records going back farther in your country, or you may have to physically search through parish records and church records.

DNA genetic genealogy is a useful new technique that can be used to determine relationships between you and any old samples of DNA you can find.  However, it is of particular if you have contact with other families with your surname, where DNA sampling and testing can determine if you are related, and how far back that relationship originates. Private DNA testing is not particularly expensive and the cost can be shared between the families involved.

Once you have gone as far as you can with one branch of your family, go on to the other branch. You might be lucky and find some overlap, but generally not. However, that’s the way to go about genealogy and create a family tree – one side of your family at a time, and take it slowly at first, getting all the word of mouth and hearsay information you can before spending money using internet facilities on genealogy and family trees.

June 9, 2011

I am Having some issues with My DNA Test results: Why?

The DNA tests results, whether you do a paternity DNA test or infidelity test, will always be given within the agreed turnaround time. It is rare to have problems related to results and when there are they are often minor and easily solved.

My DNA test Results have not Yet Arrived

The results for a DNA test are only sent to the person who has purchased the test and not to all people who have submitted samples; hence, if you have not agreed to have a copy of the paternity test results or have not paid for the test then you may not be aware that the results have been sent.

All results are sent by email and sometimes the email may automatically go into your spam folder instead of your inbox.

You will have a very precise due date for your results which will be sent to you as soon as your samples have been received at the laboratory. The due date means you will receive the results on the day and most likely in the afternoon or evening and not in the morning. People can sometimes become very anxious waiting but it is useless contacting the company for the DNA Test results as they will not be ready before late afternoon or evening.

Other reasons for DNA Test delays:

  • You may have only paid for a father and Child paternity test but included the mother’s DNA samples. You will be required to pay the additional cost as laboratory testing will have likely already started and tested the mother’s samples.
  • A signature is missing on the consent form. In other words, a DNA sample has been sent in but no one has signed for it. Having the necessary signatures is crucial for the DNA testing company so as to meet all legal requirements for these tests.
  • The average turnaround time for most results is between 5-7 days. It is understandable that the wait for these tests can create undue stress and worry and thus, if you need your paternity DNA test results quickly you can choose to have express DNA testing. This express testing means you will only wait two working days for your results starting from the moment your samples are received. Keep in mind, however, that Saturday and Sunday are not considered working days.

DNA test Results are meticulously organized by the testing company so as to meet all established time limits and turnaround times; however, postal issues and errors on behalf of the client are outside the company’s control.

June 2, 2011

DNA Testing in New Zealand

It makes absolute sense to want to do DNA testing in New Zealand and many companies can offer their services as they are based in New Zealand. Given the ease of sample collection using oral swabs and a home kit, it is then up to the person wishing to do the test to collect their own DNA samples in a few basic steps explained inside the kit provided.

DNA testing is accurate and reliable. The cost of a DNA test in nz varies; the type of test and number of people taking part being a determined factor. If you do a paternity DNA test, expect an inclusion of paternity that is no lower than 99.9% and you can increase that percentage by adding the mother’s samples to the test. If the tested father is not the biological father of the child, the DNA test result will show an inclusion of 0%. Of course, companies offering DNA testing in New Zealand will have a whole portfolio of tests available; anything from ancestry DNA testing to sibling DNA testing to maternal lineage testing. If you need the paternity test to be presented in a court of law, you might want to get all the necessary information from the company before going ahead with anything. You will find a consultant ready to assist and guide you with all the information you require. DNA testing is a smooth and straightforward process and it is unlikely to ever encounter issues with a paternity test results.

Sibling testing is typically used to determine whether brothers and/or sisters share the same biological father. Ancestry testing can tell you about your ancient geogenetic roots and the migration patterns of your early ancestors.

You will definitely find DNA paternity testing in Auckland ; being the largest city with the highest population in New Zealand. However, given that everything is done via postal means (the kit is sent to you, you collect the DNA samples and you send the DNA samples back to the lab) it does not really make a difference where you live in New Zealand as everything can be easily organized.

When choosing the company to do your DNA testing in New Zealand remember to look out for the accreditation of their labs.

April 5, 2011

Paternity DNA testing FAQs

An expansive list of FAQs is ideal if you are thinking of doing a paternity DNA test or another type of DNA test. These will  enable you to know quickly and briefly the answers to the lingering questions in your head.

easyDNA New Zealand provides a concise yet extensive list of questions and answers about paternity testing or more general questions and answers about DNA testing in general. A list of Frequently Asked Questions is of course no substitute for actually speaking to someone about your DNA testing requirements. Yes, essentially a lot of the cases from one person to the next are pretty similar but it is always good to get the full reassurance of someone working for the company who can support your and make you feel as confident as possible before you actually do the test.

Reading through easyDNA New Zealand FAQs (frequently asked questions) on paternity testing gives you insights into issues such as the following:

  • How long will my DNA paternity test results take?
  • Can I use my Paternity Test result in court, will I need a legal paternity test?
  • Information about the DNA testing kit
  • How important is accreditation?

Reading through the FAQs means that when you actually contact easyDNA New Zealand (or any company you choose to do your testing) you will be well aware of some of the things being explained on the phone or in the email and thus, you will feel more comfortable and competent to go ahead with the DNA test.

To be said, doing a paternity DNA test is so simple nowadays that there is little to be concerned; have a look at the FAQs!!!

February 17, 2011

Child trafficking and DNA Testing

Filed under: DNA Testing News — Tags: , — admin @ 9:08 am

DNA testing is now being used to limit and control child trafficking. Dr. Herawati Sudoyo chief of Indonesia’s Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology has stated how the institute has helped police investigations dealing specifically on locating child traffickers and the children themselves.

One of the first major breakthroughs took place in the South of the island of Sumatra where police found 8 babies in a dilapidated house. The house was CCTV controlled- this in stark contrast to its appearance of a derelict, abandoned residence. The number of bed in the house made it appear as if the house may have been used a nursery for the child traffickers. The owner of the house claimed that these where either his children or children which had been given into his care by relatives.

DNA testing on the babies ensued to confirm the man’s statements. This is a crucial and first step in any investigation involving child trafficking- do the children involved belong to the people who they are with at the time and thus, whether they are biologically related; something which only a DNA test can confirm. In the case in question, DNA testing showed that he was actually unrelated to the children he claimed were his. DNA testing or DNA fingerprinting is a major tool in the identification of people.

The institute is just one a very few research centers that holds a DNA databank. DNA-ProKids is an initiative started by the University of Granada’s Genetic Identification Laboratory in Spain, and the Human Identification Center at the University of North Texas in the United States.

DNA-ProKids has helped find many missing children by using DNA testing. In Indonesia, the case is critical with tens of thousands of children involved in the sex and child trafficking trade. Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines are big destinations for child traffickers.

Clamping down on these child traffickers will be made easier with DNA testing. A joint effort between governments across the world is needed.

January 18, 2011

Baby DNA profile mapped from womb

A baby DNA profile has finally been mapped whilst the child is in the earliest stages of child birth. A pregnant mother carries small quantities of the baby’s blood in her blood stream. It has been many years that scientists are working on a way of isolating the baby’s blood from the mother’s blood to be able to check whether the child will suffer from any genetic illnesses such as Down’s syndrome.

The advantages are several- first and foremost, the procedure is non-invasive. This is very much unlike current procedures of sampling the baby’s cells which include amniocentesis and Chorionic villus sampling (CVS). Both these procedures are invasive and require the mother to go under anesthetic and the surgeon to enter the womb either through the vagina or through the abdomen- the needle being guided by an ultrasound. The risks with both amniocentesis and CVS are miscarriage.

The sample of baby DNA in the mother’s blood is very small- in fact, only around 10% of the mother’s total blood plasma contains the baby’s DNA. This is enough for DNA testing. However, now the baby DNA can be separated from the mother’s blood plasma. Having isolated the DNA, scientists can then map the unborn child’s entire genetic profile. It is not uncommon for parents to wish to know thier child’s genetic predispostion to illnesses- this procedure allows for a genetic predisposition test.

However, there are certain ethical issues which always come to bear with these things. One of the main issues is whether parents that find out at the early stages of the mother’s pregnancy that their child will be handicapped in any way will opt for an abortion.

Moreover, some genetic abnormalities may not even be picked up by the test. Whichever the case, mapping baby DNA has been a big step.

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