Stuff Your Mom Never Told You: DNA, Health, and Women

it's baratun Day, Welcome back. Samantha McVeigh and Annie Reese are no strangers to tackling the tough questions. Their show stuff Mom Never Told You is a wildly successful go to for conversations on what it is to identify as female and with research based discussions around feminism and how it impacts everyday life. It's no wonder they have an

audience the size of a small country. So for this episode, I was especially interested in how they would tackle the question of health and DNA and how our genetic makeup not only holds the keys to our past, but can reveal certain health insights that may impact our future as an adoptee, especially a transracial adoptee. Samantha shares how it's not unusual to seek out more information about one's biological family, but to date, information about her health history has remained

a mystery. She's taken the twenty three and ME health test, and she's both excited and anxious, all while recognizing the need for a strong support system, as this can be an emotionally triggering experience for many. Samantha's approach to preparing herself for the test, it's extremely important, especially given her personal history. As she herself acknowledges, it's also very empowering to have control over your own information, with the choice to learn as much or as little as you like.

That's the benefit of this experience. It's about you. It's up to you. Your DNA may be unbelievably small, but it's incredibly powerful. Samantha shares how mildly surprised she is by what she learns, but more importantly, how the experience has been giving her a lot to think about. Let's listen as Samantha shares her journey of discovery and how

by learning more she feels like she's winning. Check it out, Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, I'm not going to Stephane never told your protection of I Heart Radio, and this episode is gonna be a little different. Just so you know, this episode is sponsored by three and Me and as always when it comes to companies and programs like these, make sure you're reading the fine rent, know your options

and your rights, and keep informed. Yes, definitely, I think that's a good take on all the things, as I'm signing many of papers right now for many other things. But yes, I know your rights and things do change, so understand your rights, keep informed and updating it on all of it. Yes, that's the first morning. We also have a content morning, mentions of childhood trauma and overall discussions of health and wellness. It's uh, we're not gonna go too deep into them. But yes, I'm getting really

personal y'all. So thank you Andie for giving me the space. Oh no, thanks for being open with us. All right, here we go. Yeah, so it is a fairly special and uh, fairly personal episode. Again, this is what we do, right. I feel comfortable, you feel comfortable and sharing these things with our people's Yes, perhaps too comfortable. Something. We just let it all out and you'll are still so patient with us, so thank you. But we are taking a moment to look into our own health traits and DNA

specifically mine. But again, before we talk about some of the information, let's talk about how we got ready for this episode. And I say we because Annie was absolutely pivotal to me going should I do this? Do you think I'm mentally healthy enough to do this? And will

you support me? Yes? Yes, I hope you know listeners, Smith and I are legit friends, um, and we do look out for each other, and we do take that seriously because we know that, you know, you can really do yourself some harm in this kind of medium when

you're you're being so open and you're digging up these things. Um. And our very first thing that we started out doing was this mini series on trauma, right, and we hadn't like our check ins and making sure like both of us are okay and that we're not doing ourselves harm

um by being open with this. So this it was very important to me, and because I knew you were interested in it, and I know you'll talk about why uh in a minute, but it was very important to me to be like, Okay, if you're gonna do this, what is our game plan, whatever we're gonna do to make sure that this is going to be a healthy, non traumatizing experience for you. And yeah, as in fact, when I would take the test and send it off,

we would do a check in with each other. When I got the results, we did a check in, and then you checked in again with me about a day later, like how are you. I don't even know if it was day later, like a few hours later, and how are you? And I think that's really important for us to talk about because many of you already know when it comes to my identity, I have a lot of trauma surrounding it. As in fact, that was part of my therapy session I had when we did our Trauma

mini series when I started on this podcast. And it's not unusual for adoptees, especially transracial adoptees, to seek out more information of their biological family um and there's a lot of abandonment and attachment issues that come along with it. And with the advancements of these types of results and companies, people are able to dig a little bit for information when it comes to their ancestry, their family and possible

health traits. We've talked about personal experiences previously when we talked with author Nicole Chung about her memoir all we can ever know and even for myself, a part of that journey has to include protecting my mental and emotional health. And uh, we all know therapy is something we talk about a lot on here and also to go ahead and put this caveat therapy is a privilege, but it is important to stee get out if you can, UM.

And also finding a good therapist and finding a therapist that you specializes in what you need very very important, very important, UM. And I will tell you I did choose a therapist. If you all remember when we did our Trauma Many series, that was one of the big things that we started out with as well, that both Annie and I would have therapeutic sessions so that we could discuss the really heavy topics that we were talking

about at that point in time. And any I think you're still talking to that therapist, correct, M. Yes, we loved her, and uh, I stepped back a little bit because I got too busy, I didn't have enough money all those things. So I came back UM and researched a new therapist whom I found through the world of interwebs. Um, who is actually a transnational adoptee herself, so I'm very glad to hear this, and she specializes in childhood trauma, is a woman of color. I believe she's Korean as well,

so all of these check marks that I found. We had a beginning session and we had a phone conversation UM, and everything is fit and aligned, and it was really nice and different to have a moment to be able to talk about my identity issues and her to fully understand and to kind of call it out because a lot of the times I've had many therapists who would be like, oh man, that's hard, how did you react to that? Try to figure out how to respond to me?

And because she kind of understood, she knew how to So it was really interesting or refreshing. And it's a whole new turn for me because I've not had uh an Asian woman being my therapists. I've had a black woman, and then I've had a lot of white women who are my therapist, and so this is this is definitely a different experience and UM, I'm interested to see how far we can go. But yeah, we're gonna be doing

a lot of unpacking and trauma work. But I did also let her know the very beginning, Hey, I'm doing a thing with DNA reports, and I know this could be triggering for me because there's a lot of what ifs in my head that I've been able to kind of ignore, but with these I it gives me a way to research deeper. So we talked about that and why we're doing this. Yeah, I'm very curious, and I was very curious. But also with that, I knew that I had trauma and triggers and I needed to recognize

those as well. And I the reason we wanted to talk about this, And you're the one who came to and that thinkes sent me an article talking about how it can be traumatizing to discover new information. Yes, so that can come from this types of reports, and I

was very grateful, like, oh dang, yeah that's true. And so we wanted to talk about and highlight that it is important to put yourself in a good place m hm, so that it doesn't break you down right right and where you know, as we've been saying, we're very big proponents of that because I think for a lot of people they might not consider that aspects of of getting

a DNA report. And it's not like more information is good, but just being prepared that there could be things that you find out or that possibly possibilities that you're made aware of that maybe you weren't prepared for and maybe it can be maybe it would be something that's sharing

for you. So just like making sure, yes, you're in that good place, so you've got a plan in place, you got a friend to support you or have your back, because you know, we're all about supporting women, supporting women and being there for each other um and we also are just very aware of like potential triggers and traumas.

On the show, I feel like we talked about it quite often, right, and it's important because we've experienced it, and sometimes having a name for what you're going through without realizing it is nice to be like, oh again, because I do recognize my triggers, I'm able to prepare so big events and discoveries can undo some things for me. And therefore being able to recognize like the physical tills,

it's really important to prepare. And I say prepare in the big ways, but yeah, information like this can give you a chance to take control of a few things, whether you're made aware of things, um, how you proceed with things, just overall life things. I guess for me specifically, um, and we're gonna talk a little more about it in

a second. But I made some headway and discovering a little history about my past, including getting in contact with possible family members, distant relatives possibly, so a lot of things and that could be traumatizing, especially for me. Yes, yes, yes,

that's what we know. But yeah, so that's a way that I did want to prepare and would tell people who are doing these types of reports, uh, to to be aware uh of your triggers and and be having a plan in place, whether it's to go to a supportive friend, taking breaks, taking naps because I love naps. Stuff like that is really important, y'all. It's uh. I did get my report and going through it it kind of made me laugh, and go through it kind of

made me laugh again. Like I said, I've been interested to learn about my background, about digging into what can be emotionally taxing, but you know, I wanted to find out a little more, get some healthy information, um, and get a kind of a start of some of the things that I had no clue, so I have no access to you all know. I am a Korean adoptee. Came into the U S when I was seven, lived in an orphanage for two to three years. I don't have a lot of information other than the information that

was brought with me and given to my parents. I can't even remember the orphanage I was in. I'm sure my parents have that information. I was adopted through Whold International, and Whole International is the biggest adoption agency within Korea, as in fact, a majority of people probably were adopted through Holt International. And just for a little history on who Hold International Services were, it was created by Bertha and Harry Holt, who actually adopted eight what they call

war orphans themselves. So during this time, there are a lot of children out in the streets, as historically said, because they were by racial usually white soldiers with Korean women, and that brought a lot of shame. There's a lot of factors to this um and so you saw a lot of orphaned young kids, young children, and they adopted eight and from that it kind of just grew into

a large service that grew internationally. A huge amount of adoptees went to Norway, did Mark, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, and Germany, and eventually into the US. We know, a lot of Western Christianity and religion kind of popped into play as well. And it was during this time up until I would say the nineteen nineties, that international adoption like that, transracial adoption like that, was huge, and from what I gathered, was a pretty big money market for

South Korea. Of course, there's a lot of backlash now there's a bigger conversation about that and and the trauma that it has caused. There's also this idea that a majority of the adoptees were young girls or girls or baby girls because the lineage and um the patriarch essentially kind of trumps matriarchal lines and apparently can't be as traced when it comes to legacies and inheritances and such,

so hold all these things. Apparently there was this whole print in what was called the Pound Pup Legacy that was written in The Progressive, which was an article I think based in South Korea, talking about a lot of the effects and everything that happened, even talking about there was a city supply of healthy children being shipped to

these different these different countries. There's also the same conversation and we've talked about it before when we talked about surrogacy, where women were told that they were just going to be cared for at these orphanages and then kind of tricked into sighting over rights. So there's a lot of conversation. I know we've heard that with Nicole Chung. She had a little conversation about how not everyone was informed on what happened, and that happened a lot in in these

kind of agencies. They're trying to do a lot more transparency when it comes to adoptions, but still a lot of questions, uh, and a lot of things that had happened in the past where people can't reconnect. I will say I believe Wholt International had a service for adopted because who grow up and want to find out about their families and having them travel back to South Korea.

I don't have a distinct memory when I was in the orphanage of an older woman, a young woman coming back with her adopted parents to visit the orphanage and kind of looking back on her history. So that was interesting. I have very little memories. I remember her showing up and everybody being very excited about that. Within that culture also was a really kind of sad uh which that I kind of believed is that whole like these girls, if they weren't adopted, they would go into prostitution. That

was the immediate reaction. And so we were being saved from a world of prostitution, and not that that couldn't happen, but it was such a cautionary tale that was told to white Americans to save children that it became a whole persona And for me, I grew up hearing that, like, be grateful, be grateful because you could have lasted this way. And don't get me wrong, in that orphanage, I remember a lot of young girls who are aging out, kind of a lot like the foster system here in the US.

They were just aging out and no one was helping them. The government wasn't helping them, the people were not connecting people with them. Of course, it could be also that you know, these young kids have been traumatized in the system and just want to be out, and so they try to rush out. So it was very interesting to look at that history. But with that type of history that also means things get lost in translation, so we

would lose a lot of records. I was told that I did have chickenpox vaccine, that I actually did have measles at one point in time, um, and that that was about it, and like, and I was told that my parents were divorced, um and I was not allowed to live with my stepfather, so they gave me to my grandmother because my stepfather, my real biological father, was not able to care for me. And then after that she took me to the orphanage because she couldn't care

for me either. So those are the things that I remember distinctly as being told my history. But outside of that, I don't have anything. I don't know. I have a picture of what I thought was my brother, but again I have in and out dreams that are not necessarily true. All these things um that came with me. So having this kind of breakdown was interesting. So let me talk about that, because now that I'm giving you the sad history of adoption in my life, and everybody want to

thinking about that. So according to my twenty three and me ancestry composition report, I am one that Korean or at least very highly likely, and according to the rundown of the report. It really says Korean. So I don't know if you've been able to look at these reports or view these reports. It has kind of a color wheel and it tells you kind of the breakdown of

ancestry or DNA right down. Of course, it changes apparently with more and more people get reports or take on the twenty three and me and actually sit in their kit um. So the overall breakdown was interesting and made me take a deeper look at my own history. So the way it breaks down, it shows me the different administrative regions. So it says, quote, South Korea has sixteen administrative regions, and we found the strongest evidence of your

ancestry in the following nine regions. So the top five is one is Soul, second is three is Jella num Do, and then four's Bussan, and then and then five is Chon. So it's really interesting. I didn't like reading these, and now I want to go and research it more because those regions are not so of course I know Soul, I'll so no Busan. I was told Signam City and I think that's in the region of Soul, so I'm interested in seeing that to be able to see those

regions um as well. And like I said, I did try to contact someone who's like fifth removed cousin because I found out they were adopted as well, and they live in the States. So there's a chunk of people that live in the States. And several of the people that I went through that had connections or it shows as possible relatives for me that has that list. Uh, several of them were adopted, so that says a lot

to me. And I didn't understand the history behind that, and I want to learn more because I'm like, wow, uh, this seems to be so common. I wonder why. And so there's a whole breakdown. Of course, I also did my cyberstalking and went through like Facebook trying to find them. Instagram LinkedIn was a big one, um, But I just reached out to the one person because it turned out she and I had been adopted the same year and I really kind of wanted to see if we could connect.

Haven't made it beyond that other than we shared each other like as in like we confirmed and I guess you can friend them. It's the best way I can think of it. As like in Facebook, you can friend them and so I don't know, we'll see, but it's there and there's an option there, and it was nice to know that I had an option with that. So listeners, if I go beyond, I'll let you know, yes. But uh so, moving on, we want to talk about the

help and Trades reports. And I didn't know it exactly to expect since my background and my ancestry is a big mystery for me. But looking through the reports, I was my oldly surprised. Um. And just for reference, in the in the reports, the way it's phrased, when you see it, it's it is quote variants not detected, typical likelihood, slightly increased risk, and increased likelihood, So that's kind of

how they report it. So in my report, type two diabetes was at an increased likelihood with it being at range, so it gives you kind of a range of compared to other how likely, and also states with it that overall it can depend on different factors, which is always important to remember because for me, I get my yearly physical exam with the blood words. Of course that helps our insured stuff. Um, and I know that I'm in

a good place right now. We will definitely have to keep a close watch on it because things change and your age and that all factors in as well. Yes, And it's also worth noting that according to the c d C for women, quote, diabetes increases the risk of heart disease, the most common diabetes complication, by about four times, and women but only about two times. And men and women are also at a higher risk of other diabetes

related complications such as blindness, kidney disease, and depression. Right. And I didn't actually know the statistics until after I started my research. I was like, Okay, let's see what this is about. I wanted to dig deeper and just being able to get and attain this information as good and I was like, oh wow, I didn't I didn't know that women were higher risk. I feel like there's other factors that I wanted to talk about in that,

but you know, we'll get to that later. Um. And again, it also says in the City City Report that it's quote different among women African American, Hispanic, Latina, American, Indian, Alaska Native, and Asian Pacific Islander women are more likely to have diabetes than white women, which, of course, being an Asian woman, that's good for me to know. Yes, yes, indeed yeah. UM. Also in that increased likelihood category was coronary artery disease, which Smithy has talked about before as

it can present differently in women UM than men. But also starting to remember according to the CDC quote heart diseases sometimes thought of as a man's disease. Almost as many women as men die each year of heart disease in the United States. UM. And not knowing my history, that is something that I definitely want to keep in check. And I'm glad to know of this because right now, again, everything was great with my blood work this year, but

things changed swiftly. Things change, and when it comes to health wise, so I want to know these things and so being able to be informed of that feels like I'm winning. I don't know. And for many the b r C A one or the breast cancer gene and b r C A two can be alarming as it stays on the twenty three Many reports UH specific genetic variants and the b r C A one and b r C A two genes are associated with increased risks of developing certain cancers, including breast cancer in women and

men and ovarian cancer. And also they do have a great disclaimer about this, and I don't I do want to read it off. The twenty three and me b r C A one and b r C A two Genetic Health Risk Report is intended for use and adults to report three genetic variants in the b r C A one and b r C A two genes associated with a higher risk of developing breast of variant and prospect cancer. Report does not include variants and other genes

linked to hereditary cancers. Not intended to diagnose any disease or tell you about your overall risk of developing a disease. Not intended to be used to determine any treatments, and results should be confirmed in clinical settings before taking any medical action. And it's not a substitute for visits to healthcare professionals for recommended screens or appropriate follow up, which

I think is really really crucial to know. Again, this is not a tool for you to just bank your decisions on, but just the way for you to be like, let me go check this out and get more information. I think it's smart for any and all of these traits being reported, even though it's a likelihood that yes, I still will go and check it out with a doctor, just as that reminder for me myself. The report showed

zero variants detected, but again a good reminder from the report. However, more than a thousand variants in the b r C A one and b r C A two genes are known to increase cancer risk, so you can still have a variant not included in this test. In addition, most cases of breast and A variant cancers are not caused by inherited variants, so women without a variant are still at risk of developing these cancers. Is important to continue

with any cancer screenings your healthcare provider recommends. And yes, I will absolutely be going to my screenings. What it is time to squish the boobies. That's how I see it. As they say the technical term, I'm pretty sure yes, And as you said, I think, you know, being informed and getting that more information and being clear on what

that information means is so key. My family does have a history of breast cancer, so the women in our family especially are always make sure you get tested, make sure you do this, and make sure you check for this, and kind of having that in the back of my mind that it is something that I needed to keep an eye on and I think that is incredibly important, as we all should. So these were some of the hell things that we did want to talk about and

that came up when I did get my report. But there's some other interesting things I note from this report, the wellness report in the case that I am likely to flush as an alcohol flush reaction. So uh, this is not news to me, as I discovered this when I first started drinking, and I was like, WHOA, what is happening? And I had to research about what was happening, and I was like, this is this is really mean of my genetics to tell on me. So I was like, okay,

they okay, this one's okay. And then the next one was a muscle composition. So it's common in elite power athletes. I really wish someone would let my muscles know that this is supposedly something that is a trait. And the report states quote studies have found that almost all elite power athletes, including sprinters, throwers, and jumpers, have a specific genetic variant in a gene related to muscle composition. You

have the same genetic variant as these athletes. That is not obvious to me, and I'm very sad that I can't say that's obvious to me. I really wish it were, but I was like, I'm just gonna glowed about it anyway, even though it's not physically seeing here um And according to the Trades Report, I am quote more likely to be able to match a musical pitch, more likely than average to have had a bunyan, more likely than average to be afraid of heights. It is very true, likely

bitten by mosquitoes more often than others. This explains a lot between you and I any and likely to wake up around seven a m. I have not put that to the test, but I kind of want to check and see if I feel better for some reason. But you know whatever, I thought, those are all very interesting. They're very specific, and I want to know more. And they all made me laugh a little bit and giggle a little bit. And also it makes me feel superior to have said I may have had a buncheon more

before you. That makes you feel worse, you know, So there you go. This has given me a lot to think about. It has been really interesting to read and has led me to do some more research for the sake of my health and my ancestry and I'm glad to have had this information on hand. And yeah, yeah, I keep digging and as in fact, I got a new alert from twenty three and me and saying that, hey,

here's another trait you might not know about. So it keeps updating, I believe, as it continues with other kids being sent in. So I'll keep you informed of anything new. Yes, please do and thank you for sharing this with us, letting me oh so much love, so much love on this show. Well, listeners, if you have any thoughts about what we talked about today, you can always email us. You know we'd love to hear from you. Our emails

Stuff Media mom Stuff at ihart video dot com. You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram as stuff I Never Told You. Thanks as always to our super producer Christina. Thank you Christina, and thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You. Protection of I Heart Radio for more podcast on my Heart Radio because the heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or revery listen to your favorite shows and that's it on

another dope show. Did this episode inspire you to take a closer look at your health history, your genetic makeup, Who new DNA could reveal so much about our past, while also holding the keys to certain health insights that may impact our future. I continue to be inspired by these stories, and I hope you do as well. Catch you next time. Listen to Spit, an original podcast from I Heart Radio and twenty three in the on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. H