With Mayo Clinic genetic counselor Carrie A. Zabel, M.S., C.G.C.

Thank you to all for sharing your personal experiences and stories about how genetics has personally touched your lives.

While I would love to respond to each of your individual situations, the complexity of your stories prohibits me from doing so. However, I was happy to see that many conversations occurred between readers; I would encourage you to continue this activity. Much genetic expertise is drawn from experience, and you never know who you might connect with when you share your story online.

In reviewing the comments, I noted that several of you were interested in genetic counseling for a health condition. If you would like genetic counseling by a professional, you can use one of two resources. The links are listed below as "Web resources."

The first, the National Society of Genetic Counselors, has a "find a counselor" feature which will allow you to enter your zip code and locate a genetic counselor in your respective area.

If you require a diagnosis or more than genetic counseling for a given family history or condition, I would encourage you to visit the second link, GeneTests. There you can locate a genetics clinic. A medical geneticist can then evaluate your past medical history, family history, and current symptoms in hopes of providing a unifying genetic diagnosis for you.

Several of you mentioned insurance discrimination. The U.S. government recently signed the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) into effect, effective May 2009. You can find more information regarding this bill at the link below. I want to know if you believe GINA provides adequate protection, as much of the health-care community believes that the threat of genetic discrimination has been inflated by the media. Please share your thoughts and past experience so that we may all navigate this rapidly changing frontier together.

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