For couples

Carrier results for two people

A carrier result rarely matters on its own. It matters when a partner carries a variant in the same gene. Aimosti puts two people's carrier results side by side, each from their own whole-genome file, and says where they overlap.

Get the couple pack · $59 See a sample couple

What the two of you see

CarriersCarrier results side by sideThe curated panel of 60 genes, then ClinVar's listed variants in 1,363 more recessive and X-linked genes. For each gene where either of you carries a variant, the page says what would settle the question for the two of you.
XThe X chromosome, stated exactlyWhen your own file shows whether it reads one X chromosome or two, the page states how an X-linked variant you carry passes to sons and to daughters. Where the file cannot tell, it says that instead.
RulesWhat passes down by fixed rulesMitochondria pass from the mother to every child and the Y chromosome from father to son. A change that arises new in a child is in neither parent's file, and the page says so.
OutlookA couple outlook, if you both switch it onHow a few harmless traits and the ABO blood group are inherited, a child's average ancestry mix, and a height calculator that uses your two measured heights.
SummaryOne page for a genetic counsellorEvery variant in the comparison with its ClinVar classification, to print or save.

Two ways to start

Each of you has an account

Each of you uploads your own whole-genome file and has your own report. One of you invites the other from Partner view in the app. Nothing is shared until the other accepts, and either of you can withdraw it later.

One of you sets it up for both

One account holds both reports. Your partner confirms by email before their file is read, and keeps a link that erases their genome and report whenever they choose. The couple pack covers both reports for $59.

What two files cannot show

NewChanges that arise new in a childA de novo variant appears first in the child, so neither parent's genome holds it.
ChipsGenotyping chipsA 23andMe or AncestryDNA export reads selected positions only, and the carrier panel needs a sequenced genome.
EmbryosEmbryo or IVF test dataWe read the two partners' own files and nothing else.

What a carrier result means

Most inherited conditions on our carrier panel are recessive. A person with one changed copy of the gene is a carrier and is almost always healthy. A child is affected only when they inherit a changed copy from each parent.

When both partners carry the same gene

Say both of you carry a variant in the same gene. When two carriers of the same recessive condition have a child, each pregnancy has a one-in-four chance of inheriting both variants. That is a pattern to take to a genetic counsellor before a pregnancy, not a result about any child.

Why it matters more in some families

Founder populations carry their own sets of recessive conditions. Finland has the Finnish Disease Heritage, dozens of conditions far more common here than elsewhere. Ashkenazi Jewish families have a well-known set of their own, including Tay-Sachs and Gaucher disease. Our carrier panel includes genes from both sets. The heritage is not the whole Finnish picture: in 2024 HUS found 104 genes in which more than 0.5% of Finns are carriers, and only 26 of them belong to the heritage. Our guide to carrier screening for couples sets out how many couples screening finds and what Finland's public system offers.

Beyond that curated panel, each whole-genome report also looks for ClinVar's known disease-causing variants in 1,363 more recessive and X-linked genes, and the partner view compares those too. It reads the variants ClinVar lists, not whole genes, so it finds most carriers of well-known variants and not someone whose variant is not listed yet.

What a file can and cannot rule out

It is not a simulated child, not a probability for a real pregnancy, and not a clearance. Where neither file carries a variant in a gene, the cell says so and says whether the files examined that gene, which is a different thing from saying you are both clear.

A gVCF or aligned reads (BAM or CRAM) can prove that a gene was read. A plain VCF records only the variants it found, so for those genes the table says "not examined". A genotyping chip from 23andMe or AncestryDNA cannot drive the carrier panel at all.

How the partner view works

One of you opens Partner view in the app and invites the other by email. The other does not need an account yet: the invitation lets them create one, or lets them confirm by email so that you can add their file for them.
The other accepts from inside their own account, or confirms from the email link. Nothing is shared and no file of theirs is read before that, and accepting does not have to wait for their file.
Each of you needs a whole-genome file: one of you can add both, once the other confirms by email. The table fills in once both are analysed, and whoever was waiting gets an email.
You both see the same page: a count of the genes where either of you carries a variant, what each one means for the two of you, the curated panel side by side, and the wider-screen genes where either of you carries one. Either of you can withdraw it at any time, and it disappears for both.

If both of you switch it on, the page also shows a couple outlook, marked as just for fun: how a few harmless single-marker traits and the ABO blood group are inherited, a child's average ancestry mix, and a height calculator that uses your two measured heights. The heights you type are not stored. When both reports carry the emerging-research height score from a gVCF that read nearly all of its variants, the outlook also shows each of your height-score percentiles and a child's expected score, labelled emerging research. Either of you can switch it off, and it goes for both. How well two heights, and two genomes, predict a child’s height.

With both partners' consent, a separate comparison reads how closely the two files are related, shown as a band, never as a number or a named relationship. It needs a gVCF from each of you.

Without the couple outlook, the view shows carrier results only. Findings in the wider screen's dominant genes, where one changed copy can cause a condition, never appear in it. A one-page summary of the pair, with every variant and its ClinVar status, is there to print or save for a genetic counsellor.

A sample couple

Built from our made-up demo genome. Partner B is the same genome without its ATP7B change, so the table shows one shared gene and one that only partner A carries.

1 gene where both sample partners carry a variant
1 gene where one sample partner carries a variant
58 genes where neither file shows one

Genes where a sample partner carries a variant 2

CFTR Cystic fibrosis

Sample partner A: Carrier: one copy 7:117559590 CTT>C · Pathogenic · reviewed by expert panel
Sample partner B: Carrier: one copy 7:117559590 CTT>C · Pathogenic · reviewed by expert panel

Both sample partners carry a variant in CFTR. When two carriers of the same recessive condition have a child, each pregnancy has a one-in-four chance of inheriting both variants. That is a pattern to take to a genetic counsellor before a pregnancy, not a result about any child.

ATP7B Wilson disease

Sample partner A: Carrier: one copy 13:51932737 G>A · Pathogenic · reviewed by expert panel
Sample partner B: Examined, none found

One sample partner carries a variant in ATP7B. The other file covered ATP7B and found none of the variants this panel reports, which makes it less likely that both sample partners carry, without ruling it out: the panel reports only variants already classed as disease-causing, and a clinical test reads more of the gene. A genetic counsellor can say how much chance is left.

The whole panel, side by side 60 genes

Gene	Condition	Sample partner A	Sample partner B
CFTR	Cystic fibrosis	Carrier: one copy 7:117559590 CTT>C · Pathogenic · reviewed by expert panel · heterozygous	Carrier: one copy 7:117559590 CTT>C · Pathogenic · reviewed by expert panel · heterozygous
ATP7B	Wilson disease	Carrier: one copy 13:51932737 G>A · Pathogenic · reviewed by expert panel · heterozygous	Examined, none found
ACADM	MCAD deficiency	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
AGA	Aspartylglucosaminuria (AGU)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
AIRE	APECED (autoimmune polyendocrinopathy)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
ASPA	Canavan disease	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
ASS1	Citrullinemia type I	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
BCKDHB	Maple syrup urine disease	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
BCS1L	GRACILE syndrome	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
BLM	Bloom syndrome	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
BTD	Biotinidase deficiency	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
CASQ2	Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia type 2 (CASQ2)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
CLN5	CLN5 disease	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
CLN8	Northern epilepsy (CLN8)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
CLRN1	Usher syndrome type 3A	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
CTNS	Cystinosis	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
CUBN	Imerslund-Gräsbeck syndrome (B12 malabsorption)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
CYP27A1	Cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis (CTX)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
DHCR7	Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
ELP1	Familial dysautonomia	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
FAH	Tyrosinemia type I	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
FANCC	Fanconi anemia group C	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
G6PC1	Glycogen storage disease type Ia	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
G6PD	G6PD deficiency	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
GAA	Pompe disease	No variant found; not examined	No variant found; not examined
GALC	Krabbe disease	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
GALT	Galactosemia	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
GBA1	Gaucher disease	No variant found; not examined	No variant found; not examined
GJB2	Non-syndromic hearing loss (DFNB1)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
GLE1	Lethal congenital contracture syndrome 1 (LCCS1)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
HBB	Sickle cell & β-thalassemia	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
HEXA	Tay-Sachs disease	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
HYLS1	Hydrolethalus syndrome (HLS)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
IDUA	Mucopolysaccharidosis type I	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
KERA	Cornea plana 2 (CNA2)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
LCT	Congenital lactase deficiency	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
MCOLN1	Mucolipidosis IV	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
MKS1	Meckel syndrome, Finnish type (MKS1)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
MUTYH	MUTYH-associated polyposis	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
NPHS1	Congenital nephrosis, Finnish type (CNF)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
OAT	Gyrate atrophy of the choroid and retina	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
PAH	Phenylketonuria (PKU)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
POMGNT1	Muscle-eye-brain disease (MEB)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
PPT1	Infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (CLN1)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
RECQL4	RAPADILINO syndrome	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
RMRP	Cartilage-hair hypoplasia (CHH)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
RPE65	RPE65-related retinal dystrophy	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
SLC17A5	Salla disease	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
SLC26A2	Diastrophic dysplasia (DTD)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
SLC26A3	Congenital chloride diarrhea (CCD)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
SLC26A4	Pendred syndrome / hearing-loss	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
SLC7A7	Lysinuric protein intolerance (LPI)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
SMPD1	Niemann-Pick disease type A/B	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
TRDN	Triadin knockout syndrome (TRDN)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
TRIM37	Mulibrey nanism	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
TWNK	Infantile-onset spinocerebellar ataxia (IOSCA)	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
USH2A	Usher syndrome type 2A	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
VPS13B	Cohen syndrome	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
XXYLT1	XXYLT1 retinal dystrophy	Examined, none found	Examined, none found
ZNHIT3	PEHO syndrome	Examined, none found	Examined, none found

"No variant found; not examined" means the file recorded no variant there and could not prove the position was read. "Examined, none found" appears only where that person's own file (a gVCF or aligned reads) covered the gene well enough to say so. Neither is a clearance for the pair.

What the files could show

56 of the 58 genes where neither file shows a variant were read in both files. For the other 2, at least one file could not show the gene was read, so the table cannot say whether it was examined.

The curated panel reads 60 genes in full, weighted towards Finnish Disease Heritage and other founder conditions. The wider screen adds ClinVar's known variants in 1,363 more genes, which finds most carriers of well-known variants but not someone whose variant ClinVar does not list yet. Clinical expanded carrier screening reads whole genes, so a result here is a strong lead, not a clearance.

What passes down by fixed rules

A few parts of inheritance follow fixed rules, the same for any child, set by how chromosomes are passed on.

The X chromosome: a parent with two X chromosomes passes one of them, at random, to each child. A parent with one X passes it to every daughter, and every son gets that parent's Y in its place. This is why a variant on the X is read differently from the one-in-four pattern for two carriers.

Mitochondrial DNA comes only from the egg, so a child carries the maternal line of the parent whose egg they came from, unchanged apart from rare new mutations. A study of 11,035 families found no case of it passing from a father.

The Y chromosome passes from father to son, so every son carries his father's paternal line.

Some X-linked conditions mostly come from changes a variant file does not record. In the largest Duchenne muscular dystrophy database, 4,894 of 7,149 changes deleted one or more whole exons of the DMD gene, and in an international study of severe haemophilia A, 880 of 2,093 patients had a rearrangement of the F8 gene. Fragile X syndrome comes from a repeat in the FMR1 gene growing longer, which these files do not measure at all.

Changes that arise new, in an egg, a sperm or an early embryo, are in neither parent's file, so no comparison of two parents' genomes can show them.

Sources: Bladen et al. 2015, the TREAT-NMD DMD Global Database: more than 7,000 Duchenne mutations (Human Mutation) · Antonarakis et al. 1995, factor VIII gene inversions in severe hemophilia A (Blood) · Wei et al. 2020, nuclear-mitochondrial DNA segments resemble paternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (Nature Communications)

This page shows two adults' carrier status, side by side, from the two genome files, whether each of you uploaded your own or one of you added the other's after they confirmed. It is information about the two of you, not a statement about any pregnancy or child. It cannot rule a condition out: a variant-only file records what was called, not what was examined, and this panel screens a fixed list of genes, not every recessive condition. Clinical carrier screening and genetic counselling exist for exactly this question, though in Finland predictive carrier screening is not currently offered to couples (HUS, 2024). A result here is not a basis for any reproductive decision.

Questions couples ask

Do we both need a whole-genome file?

Yes. The carrier panel reads whole gene regions, which needs a sequenced genome: a gVCF, a VCF, or aligned reads (BAM or CRAM). Check a file first, free and in your browser.

Can one of us set it up for both?

Yes. One account can hold both reports once the partner confirms by email, and the partner keeps a link that erases their genome and report at any time.

What does each of us see?

The same page: the genes where either of you carries a variant and what each one means for the two of you. With the couple outlook switched on by both of you, its traits, blood group, ancestry mix and height lines appear as well.

What does it cost?

Each person needs a whole-genome report. The couple pack is $59 for both, against $78 bought separately.

Couple pack: $59 for two genome reports ($78 separately). Get the couple pack

Each person needs their own whole-genome report. See prices or check your file first, free and in your browser.