I don’t think my parents were ever going to tell me that I was conceived with Donor Sperm. I honestly think that they were going to take that one to their graves. Let me explain…

The 23andMe Test

For Christmas, “Santa” brought my husband and me 23andMe DNA tests. We expected zero surprises on mine; I’m a first-generation American. My mother was born in Italy, and my father was born in the U.K., so my DNA test should have come back with Italian, maybe some North African, Middle Eastern, or Greek; and U.K./British Isles, with maybe some Viking.

That’s not what happened, aside from Italian with a soupcon of Middle Eastern and a dash of Baltic. No, there was British, all right, but there was also Finnish and French and German. I could not do the mental gymnastics to reconcile this information, and then I clicked on the “DNA Relatives” feature. This tool would show me anyone who had taken the 23andMe test and opted into DNA Relatives to find, say, long-lost cousins. Only I didn’t find long-lost cousins.

I found a half-sister.

My half-sister is a month older than me and grew up 20 minutes from me. When I learned that from her, I was certain one of my parents had an affair. She had no idea how this could be possible. We tried to figure out which one of our parents had engaged in the extracurricular activity; we had no luck. So I did what my journalism background has trained me so well to do: I asked my father, point-blank, why I had a half-sister. He went silent; I thought the phone had died.

He called me back the next day; my mother is definitely my mother. My father, however, is not my biological father. After learning that he couldn’t have children, he made the difficult decision, along with my mother, to use Donor sperm from the Tyler Fertility Clinic, which burned down in 2003. I was conceived with donor sperm in the late 1970s, and the records appear to have been lost in the fire.

So Now What? Let’s Check My Health

My biggest concern with being conceived with donor sperm is not meeting my donor. As far as I’m concerned, the man who raised me is my father. He taught me to drive a car and helped me with my homework. I never for one single minute felt like I wasn’t his biological child. No, what I worry about is if I’m a ticking time bomb for some latent disease.

I plugged my raw 23andMe data into Promethease, which, for $10, analyzed the data and provided a long, if somewhat confusing, report. I searched by conditions and common phrases, and I found what I was looking for: no ticking time bomb. There were no real surprises in my health DNA: no BRCA mutations, no early onset Alzheimer’s, and only a slightly elevated risk of heart disease. While I would love to hear firsthand about paternal relatives and their health conditions, this is a much more exact way of finding out than mere anecdotal evidence. (If the Promethease data is too confusing, 23andMe does offer health reports. You can either order them at the time you order your DNA kit, or you can upgrade later.)

DNA Results to Power My Training

Next up, I wanted to find out how my DNA affected my training. Neither of my parents are athletic – or all that into sports. Meanwhile, I’m completely addicted to running and CrossFit. Since I was conceived with donor sperm, it’s entirely likely that the donor was somewhat athletic. I did some digging and found this company called Athletigen. I ordered the Sports Performance report, and the results said I:

• Have improved aerobic metabolism and energy
• Have mixed power and endurance strengths (but 23andMe says I have a genetic variant found in elite power athletes – so take all this with a grain of salt!)
• Have variants associated with endurance performance (hence my love of half marathons)
• Have variants associated with increased muscle strength
• May have power-oriented strengths
• May experience increased body temperature during exercise (hence the profuse sweating in the summer)
• Have low caffeine sensitivity (coffee addict!)
• May have quicker recovery and adaptation to strenuous exercise.

There’s more, obviously, but I found these to be the most interesting. What it means for me is that I’m not going to say “I don’t sprint” anymore. I’m not going to say “I can’t do [insert CrossFit thing here]” anymore. I’m changing my training focus to incorporate more sprints, more power-type exercise. I’m going to embrace those 7-minute AMRAPs full of wall balls.

Overall, I’d have to say the genetic testing experience has been mostly positive for me. Yes, it came as a huge shock to find out that I was conceived with donor sperm. But it doesn’t change anything, really. I’m still here. At nearly 40, I’m still the same person I was before I found out about my origins. Do I wish I had known sooner? Of course! Maybe I could have gotten information about my donor from the Tyler Fertility Clinic before the records were destroyed. Then again, maybe it could be a dead end.

Ultimately, I’ve found out what I need for health reasons, and I even learned a little bit about what my genetics say about my training and performance. I also found a half-sister and half-brother who are amazing humans in their own right. I’m glad I know about all this, because now, I can move forward as I (and my kids!) get older.

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