Recently, a 10-year-old girl wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times about her desire for girls to raise their hands more often in class. As a mother of twin 9-year-old girls, it sparked a lot of conversation at home. I read this as a call to action for young girls across the country to claim their space early in life. This led me to think about my own career path as a woman, and how I got here. While women are still grossly underrepresented in the world of science and technology, there is one field where we are leading the entire industry forward. You see, I am a genetic counselor, and 95 percent of us are women.
[See: 5 Rare Diseases You’ve Never Heard of Until Now.]
Genetic counselors are professionally trained in both the science of genetics and the art of conveying the impact of hereditary diseases on individuals and their families. This involves interpreting DNA findings and giving people the resources they need to manage or prevent an inherited disease. Recently, I met a 27-year-old woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer after noticing a lump on a self-exam. When DNA testing revealed an underlying genetic cause, her healthy sister and cousins were offered the chance to pursue DNA testing, too. A genetic counselor helps guide each family member through this type of personal decision, empowering them to get in front of a potential disease — and ideally stop it from ever occurring. This is preventative medicine at its best. Decades from now, we will balk at the idea of waiting until multiple women within a family are diagnosed with cancer before offering such valuable testing.
In the reproductive setting, blood tests that analyze fetal DNA in pregnant women are fast becoming the norm, and genetic counselors help women and their partners make sense of the results. This requires us to be equally adept at analyzing complex scientific data and communicating sensitive information with empathy and care. Whether it’s informing a couple about the risk of passing a serious hereditary condition to future offspring, or explaining to a pregnant woman how chromosomal imbalances can impact her baby’s health, genetic counselors break down complex information in a digestible way. This can make all the difference in anticipating the medical needs of a pregnant woman or detecting a life-threatening condition early on, while women still have viable reproductive options.
[See: 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Sickle Cell Disease.]
Aside from interpreting DNA test results and explaining how individuals can act upon genetic information, counselors wear many other hats. We often assess your personal and family health history to determine if you’d benefit from testing in the first place. We can explain the medical value of testing to your health plan if you’re having trouble with insurance coverage. Many of us work as clinical researchers, contributing to studies that improve humankind’s understanding of genomic health. And finally, genetic counselors work in the labs that analyze your genes, serving as a bridge between the physicians who order the DNA tests and the scientists who perform them.
There isn’t a lot of research explaining why the gender imbalance is so high in genetic counseling. To be clear, I think I can speak for all genetic counselors in stating that we would welcome more men to join us in our professional endeavors. For now, I think it’s wonderful that — at least in the sphere of genetic health — women are leading the charge in a rather progressive field of health care. I would venture to say that most of us did raise our hands as young girls, and we continue to claim a seat at the table.
[See: Do’s and Don’ts of Home Medical Devices.]
To celebrate these contributions, today marks the first annual Genetic Counselor Awareness Day. You can visit aboutgeneticcounselors.com to learn more, and I encourage you to join the conversation on Twitter, where genetic mavens across the world are sharing their experiences with the hashtag #IAmAGeneticCounselor.
Shivani Nazareth is Director of Medical Affairs at Counsyl, a DNA testing and genetic counseling service. She worked as a clinical genetic counselor for over ten years in New York City, most recently at Weill Cornell Medical College. Shivani obtained her graduate degree from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and currently serves on the National Society of Genetic Counselors’ Public Policy Committee.
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This Women-Driven Field Is Changing Health Care originally appeared on usnews.com
