Your genome is not a fate. It is a map.

A genetic analysis reads your hereditary information and looks for variants that carry medical meaning. Four methods exist, with very different reach: a panel tests a fixed selection of genes, an array tests individual known positions in the genome, exome sequencing reads all protein-coding regions, and genome sequencing reads the entire genome. At YEARS the analysis runs as exome and genome sequencing with interpretation of more than 170 clinically curated risk genes. The distinction between data and findings matters: sequencing produces raw data, and it only becomes medically usable through physician interpretation in the context of your family history and your other values.

The German Genetic Diagnostics Act is unambiguous: a predictive genetic examination, meaning an examination for conditions you do not yet have, may only be ordered by a physician. Genetic counselling is mandatory before and after the examination, and for predictive testing it must be given by an appropriately qualified person. You must consent in writing, and you have the right not to be told a result. This chain is exactly what is missing from gene tests you buy online and post off yourself. There you receive a file, but no information duty, no counselling, and no medical assessment of what you are supposed to do with it.

That depends entirely on the type of finding, and this distinction is the most important one in the whole field. Monogenic findings with high penetrance, meaning ones that actually cause the condition in most carriers, such as BRCA1, BRCA2, Lynch syndrome or familial hypercholesterolaemia, are covered by guidelines and trigger defined consequences. Pharmacogenetic findings demonstrably change the dosing of certain drugs. Polygenic risk scores, by contrast, are research instruments: they shift a probability without establishing a diagnosis, and their predictive performance is far better documented in European cohorts than in others. Lifestyle genetics such as COMT or MTHFR we deliberately do not treat as actionable. The complete classification per procedure is on our evidence page.

Three groups benefit most clearly. First, people with a family history, meaning cancer, heart attack or dementia in parents or siblings, particularly at a young age of onset. Second, people with findings that lifestyle cannot explain, such as very high cholesterol despite a good diet. Third, people who regularly take several medications, for whom pharmacogenetics delivers concrete dosing guidance. An analysis is less useful if you treat it as a substitute for baseline diagnostics. Blood pressure, ApoB, Lp(a), HbA1c and imaging say more about your next ten years than your genome does. Genetics supplements these values, it does not replace them.

Your raw data and your findings belong to you. They are processed under the German Genetic Diagnostics Act and the GDPR, stored within the EU, and not passed to third parties: not to insurers, not to employers, and not for research purposes without your explicit and separate consent. In Germany employers and insurers may neither demand genetic examinations nor accept existing results, which is written into the Genetic Diagnostics Act. You can request deletion of your data. On request you receive your raw data in a common format so you can pass it to a physician continuing your care.

Genetics at YEARS is not a standalone product but part of the Ultimate programme at 16,900 euros. That includes exome and genome sequencing, interpretation of more than 170 risk genes, pharmacogenetics, epigenetics, microbiome, whole-body MRI, liquid biopsy and more than 230 biomarkers, plus medical counselling before and after the examination and three check-ins a year. The reason for the bundle is medical: a genetic finding without blood values, imaging and family history cannot be interpreted meaningfully. Statutory insurance does not reimburse. Privately insured patients and self-payers can claim parts of it, which is clarified in the intro call.