Who Do You Think You Are?

Home testing DNA kits are raising problems for the NHS in the UK as they generate many false negatives for rare genes and fail to detect others entirely (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/21/senior-doctors-call-for-crackdown-on-home-genetic-testing-kits ). The now relatively cheap kits are generally used by people in attempts to assess their ancestry but the data can be directed to other online specialist 'health advice' companies who 'interpret' the data in relation to health risk (although they claim that this is not a 'diagnosis'). There have reportedly women turning up to surgery asking for a bilateral mastectomy as they have been told that they carry a faulty gene that dramatically increases the risk of breast cancer. More sophisticated (and expensive) DNA testing by the doctors have revealed this not to be the case (although one woman is said to have asked for the operation, anyhow, "just in case"). It seems that these tests (sometimes given as jokey birthday presents) are wasting stretched medical time and resources.