Hemochromatosis Genetic Screening

There may be reasons you would choose not to have carrier testing.

• You think that your risk of being a carrier is low. This may be true if you are an African American or an Asian-American. Fewer people in these groups have hereditary hemochromatosis.
• Carrier testing is expensive. You may decide not to have testing if your insurance does not pay for it.
• Testing is not always able to predict if you will have hereditary hemochromatosis. Although the test detects the most common hemochromatosis gene (HFE) mutations, there may be other HFE mutations that the test does not detect. There is a small chance that you are a carrier even if the results are normal because there may be other HFE mutations that the test does not find. HFE gene testing is usually not used to check for other, less common causes of inherited hemochromatosis.