JScreen Offers Hanukkah Discount and Highlights Top 5 Reasons You Should Spit with Your Partner
(Atlanta)—JScreen, a not-for-profit at home education and genetic carrier screening program, highlights the top 5 reasons couples should spit to ensure that they receive essential genetic information that can help them plan for their future babies. To utilize the $18 per kit Hanukkah discount, enter Code GELT2018 at check-out. The code and discount expire on Dec. 11.
Top 5 Reasons You Should Spit with Your Partner
5. The only way to know if you’re a carrier of a genetic disease is to get screened or have an affected child. Carriers are healthy individuals with no symptoms.
4. 3 out of 4 people test positive as carriers for one or more genetic diseases that could affect their future children. But, options exist for carrier couples to have a healthy baby: IVF/PGD, sperm or egg donation from a non-carrier, adoption, prenatal testing.
3. No family history of genetic disease? Your kids can still be at risk since 80% of babies born with genetic diseases are born to couples with no known family history of that disease.
2. DNA testing on your saliva can now be used for carrier testing, making it easier than ever to get screened. Screening no longer requires a blood test.
1. Because, it’s fun. So, why not? Spitting for your test can bring couples closer as they share this information.
The JScreen “spit kit” is ordered online, used at home, and then mailed in for DNA testing. If a person or couple’s risk is elevated, a certified genetic counselor will privately address their results by phone, providing options and resources as needed. Cutting-edge technology enables geneticists to look closely at people’s genetic makeup to identify their risk for more than 200 different diseases.
“Let’s be real: talking about genetic testing and potential diseases is not romantic,” said Hillary Kenner, director of national outreach for JScreen. “But it’s important for couples to have this important information as they plan for their future, happy, healthy family. We hope that this list will encourage couples to spit together, to get tested, and to understand all of their options as they start their family.”
JScreen is a non-profit community-based public health initiative dedicated to preventing Jewish genetic diseases, headquartered in Atlanta at Emory University School of Medicine.
