On this page
- The Bottom Line
- Key Facts
- What Exactly Is a Family Medical History?
- This Conversation Goes WAY Beyond Colon Cancer
- And Don’t Forget the Conditions Families Sometimes Don’t Talk About
- The Most Important Question Might Be: “How Old Were They?”
- So…How Do You Actually Start This Conversation?
- Talk to the Family Historians
- Know What Runs in Your Family
- Build Your Family Health Tree
- Don’t Forget Both Sides of the Family
- “But My Family Doesn’t Talk About Medical Stuff.”
- Be Careful With Family Medical Folklore
- Genetic Testing Results Shouldn’t Die in a Desk Drawer
- Family History Is Not Your Destiny
- Take the Information Into the Doctor’s Office
- Make a Family Medical History Day
- Families Inherit More Than Recipes
- When to Seek Medical Care
- Research & references
The Bottom Line
Families remember everything. Who makes the best macaroni and cheese. Who still owes somebody money from 2014. Which cousin ruined the family reunion. The exact wording of an argument that happened at Thanksgiving in 1997.
Then somebody asks, “Does heart disease run in our family?” — and suddenly nobody remembers anything. Total silence. Somebody changes the subject to the potato salad.
Your family’s health history isn’t gossip. It’s health information.
Here is the thing: your healthcare team can only use what you can tell them. “Grandpa had heart trouble” is useful. “Grandpa had his first heart attack at 43” is substantially more useful, because early disease in a close biological relative can change what your clinician recommends and when.
Same with cancer. “A relative had cancer” is a start. “My paternal aunt had breast cancer, diagnosed at 42, and she had genetic testing” is the version that actually helps a clinician or genetic counselor decide whether your screening plan should look different.
Key Facts
- Family health history means the diseases and conditions that occur among your biological relatives — not just cancer.
- The specific diagnosis and the age at diagnosis matter more than a vague “it runs in the family.”
- Shared genes are only part of the story; families also share environments, diets, activity levels, tobacco and alcohol exposure, and other habits.
- Several relatives with the same disease does not automatically mean an inherited genetic syndrome — but the pattern is still worth documenting.
- Relevant history can come through either biological parent, so collect both sides.
- Family history is risk information, not a prediction. Many contributing factors can be modified.
What Exactly Is a Family Medical History?
A family health history is a record of the diseases and health conditions that have occurred among your biological relatives, along with the ages at which those conditions were diagnosed.
It is useful for two reasons. First, biological relatives share genes. Second, families often share a lot more than genes.
- Genes inherited from biological parents
- Shared households, neighborhoods and environments
- Eating patterns and food traditions
- Physical activity habits
- Tobacco, alcohol and other exposures
- Occupational or environmental exposures
- Health behaviors, including whether people go to the doctor at all
This Conversation Goes WAY Beyond Colon Cancer
We talk about colons a lot around here. But your family health history is not a colorectal-only project, and it is not a cancer-only project either.
Cardiovascular health
Ask about heart attacks, coronary artery disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart failure, irregular heart rhythms, aneurysms, blood clots and any sudden unexplained death — especially in relatives who were young when it happened.
Diabetes and metabolic health
Type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes during pregnancy, metabolic disease and significantly elevated cholesterol all belong on the page. Family history of diabetes is one of the risk factors clinicians specifically ask about.
Cancer
This is where specifics matter most. Write the type of cancer and the age at diagnosis, not just the word “cancer.”
| Less useful | Much more useful |
|---|---|
| “Cancer runs in my family.” | “Paternal aunt — breast cancer — diagnosed at 42.” |
| “My uncle had something in his stomach.” | “Maternal uncle — stomach cancer — diagnosed around 60.” |
| “Somebody had colon issues.” | “Brother — colorectal cancer — diagnosed at 47; had genetic testing.” |
Useful cancers to ask about include colorectal, prostate, breast, ovarian, uterine or endometrial, pancreatic, melanoma, stomach, kidney and blood cancers — among others.
Scroll the table horizontally to see all columns.
To be clear: a family cancer pattern does not automatically mean an inherited cancer syndrome. Depending on the pattern, your healthcare professional may recommend genetic counseling or genetic testing — and that is a conversation to have with a qualified clinician, not with the internet.
And Don’t Forget the Conditions Families Sometimes Don’t Talk About
Some diagnoses got filed under “we don’t discuss that.” Stigma, privacy, shame, grief and old-fashioned politeness have kept a lot of medically relevant information out of family conversations.
- Mental health conditions
- Substance-use disorders
- Reproductive and pregnancy-related conditions
- Gastrointestinal disease, including inflammatory bowel disease
- Genetic and congenital disorders
- Dementia and other neurological conditions
- Autoimmune diseases
- Blood and clotting disorders
- Kidney and liver disease
- Glaucoma and inherited eye disorders
Diseases don’t become medically irrelevant because previous generations considered them embarrassing.
Handle these topics with the same respect you would want. You are not collecting dirt. You are collecting health information that may matter for you, your siblings, your kids and your grandkids.
The Most Important Question Might Be: “How Old Were They?”
Age at diagnosis is the detail people skip, and it is often the detail that changes the plan.
| What people usually say | What your clinician can actually use |
|---|---|
| “My dad had a heart attack.” | “My dad had his first heart attack at 41.” |
| “My mother had breast cancer.” | “My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at 38.” |
| “My grandmother had a stroke.” | “My grandmother had a stroke at 55; she also had high blood pressure.” |
Scroll the table horizontally to see all columns.
If nobody knows the exact age, write down your best estimate and label it as an estimate: “late 40s,” “around 60,” “before I was born.” Approximate is far better than blank. Honest uncertainty is still data.
So…How Do You Actually Start This Conversation?
You do not need a formal announcement, a spreadsheet, or a family meeting with a gavel. You need one opener and a little curiosity.
Then follow the thread with specific, easy questions:
- “How old was Dad when he had his first heart attack?”
- “What kind of cancer did Grandma have?”
- “Has anybody in the family had a stroke?”
- “Do we know what Grandpa actually died from?”
- “Has anyone in the family had genetic testing?”
- “Was anyone diagnosed with anything young — in their 30s or 40s?”
Tone matters. You are curious, not conducting an investigation. Nobody responds well to being cross-examined between the greens and the cornbread.
Talk to the Family Historians
Every family has that one person. They know every birthday, every wedding, every divorce, every funeral, every maiden name, and exactly who said what at the repast in 2009.
Find that person.
Older relatives are often the best living source of family health history. Beyond conversation, other records may help fill gaps when they are available to you: obituaries, funeral programs, death certificates, old medical records, pathology reports and any genetic testing reports a relative received.
Write it down while you are talking. Memory is not a filing system, and the group chat scrolls.
Know What Runs in Your Family
Build Your Family Health Tree
Start with the biological relatives closest to you and work outward. First-degree relatives carry the most weight, but the wider picture still helps.
- Parents
- Siblings and half-siblings
- Children
- Grandparents
- Aunts and uncles
- Nieces and nephews
For each person, capture the same six pieces of information: relationship → condition → age diagnosed → maternal or paternal side → age and cause of death → any known genetic testing.
| Relative | Condition | Age diagnosed | Side | Age / cause of death | Genetic testing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Father | Heart attack | 41 (first) | Paternal | Living, 68 | No |
| Mother | Type 2 diabetes | 52 | Maternal | Living, 66 | No |
| Paternal aunt | Breast cancer | 42 | Paternal | 58, breast cancer | Yes — result unknown to me |
| Maternal grandfather | Stroke | around 60 | Maternal | 74, “heart” | Unknown |
Blanks and “unknown” are acceptable entries. Bring the sheet anyway.
Scroll the table horizontally to see all columns.
Don’t Forget Both Sides of the Family
Clinically relevant inherited risk can come through either biological parent. Full stop.
People routinely under-report the father’s side, especially for conditions they mentally file as “women’s health” or “men’s health.” That habit loses information. Breast and ovarian cancer history on a father’s side should not be automatically ignored, and prostate cancer in a paternal family history can still be relevant family information for daughters as well as sons.
Your job is to collect. Let your healthcare professional or a genetic counselor decide what is clinically relevant to your individual situation.
“But My Family Doesn’t Talk About Medical Stuff.”
Understood, and that is extremely common. Privacy, stigma, fear, cultural differences, limited health literacy, immigration and language barriers, and plain old grief all make these conversations harder. Some relatives are not being difficult — they simply do not want to revisit the worst year of their life over dessert.
And then respect the answer. If a relative declines, that is their boundary, and it stands. You can ask another relative, check available records, or simply document “not known” and move on. Nobody is obligated to hand over their medical history, even to family.
Be Careful With Family Medical Folklore
Every family has its own medical dialect:
- “He had sugar.”
- “She had a bad heart.”
- “Grandma had female cancer.”
- “His kidneys went bad.”
- “He just dropped dead.”
These phrases usually contain a real clue. “Sugar” often means diabetes. “Female cancer” might mean uterine, cervical, or ovarian cancer — which are different diseases with different implications. “He just dropped dead” could describe a heart attack, an arrhythmia, an aneurysm, or a stroke.
But a phrase is not a diagnosis. Ask follow-up questions where it is appropriate, and write down what you actually know versus what you are guessing. “Possibly uterine cancer — family described it as ‘female cancer’” is an honest, useful entry.
Genetic Testing Results Shouldn’t Die in a Desk Drawer
When someone in a family has clinically significant genetic testing, the result may have implications for biological relatives — and far too often that paperwork ends up in a drawer, a shoebox, or a deceased relative’s file cabinet.
If you receive clinically significant genetic testing results, ask your healthcare professional or genetic counselor:
- Could my biological relatives be affected by this result?
- Which relatives should know about it?
- Should any of them consider genetic counseling or testing?
- What specific information should I actually share, and how?
Family History Is Not Your Destiny
Let’s deflate the doom for a second. A family history of a disease means your risk may be higher than average. It does not mean the disease is scheduled.
Plenty of what influences these conditions can be discussed, monitored, and often modified with your healthcare team:
- Tobacco use
- Physical activity
- Diet
- Weight
- Blood pressure
- Cholesterol
- Blood glucose
- Alcohol consumption
- Preventive care visits
- Appropriate screening, sometimes starting earlier or happening more often
Family history gives your healthcare team information, not a crystal ball.
Take the Information Into the Doctor’s Office
Information sitting in your phone notes does nothing. Bring it to your appointment, and update your healthcare provider whenever something changes.
Family history isn’t something you complete once and forget.
Make a Family Medical History Day
Once a year is plenty. Attach it to something you already do: the family reunion, a holiday gathering, somebody’s birthday, the annual cookout where the same two people argue about the grill.
Pull out the worksheet, ask what has changed, add the new information, and put it back somewhere you will find it.
No need to turn Thanksgiving into morning rounds.
Families Inherit More Than Recipes
Families pass down money, property, recipes, photographs, questionable furniture and genetics. They can also pass down knowledge — and knowledge is the part you can actually hand somebody on purpose.
You cannot rewrite your family’s medical history. But knowing it may help your healthcare team decide how to write the next chapter.
So call your mama. Call your daddy. Call Grandma. Call that auntie who knows everybody’s business anyway. And ask: “What should we know about our family’s health?”
Then write it down.
When to Seek Medical Care
Family history is a planning tool, not an emergency service. Contact a healthcare professional promptly — regardless of what your family history says — if you have:
- Chest pain, pressure, shortness of breath, or symptoms you think could be a heart attack — call emergency services.
- Sudden face drooping, arm weakness, or speech difficulty, which can signal a stroke — call emergency services.
- Rectal bleeding, blood in the stool, or unexplained changes in bowel habits.
- A new lump, unexplained weight loss, or persistent unexplained pain.
- A close relative newly diagnosed with cancer at a young age, or a new genetic diagnosis in the family.
Bring your family health history to routine visits too. It helps your clinician decide which screenings you need and when they should start.
Frequently Asked Questions
Scholarly Sources & References
- 1.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Family Health History. CDC Genomics and Precision Health. CDC — Family Health History
- 2.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Diabetes Risk Factors. CDC — Diabetes Risk Factors
- 3.American Heart Association. Family History and Heart Disease, Stroke. American Heart Association — Family History
- 4.National Cancer Institute. Genetic Testing for Inherited Cancer Susceptibility Syndromes. National Cancer Institute — Genetic Testing
- 5.National Cancer Institute. The Genetics of Cancer. National Cancer Institute — Cancer Genetics
- 6.National Human Genome Research Institute. Family Health History. NHGRI — Family Health History
- 7.Ginsburg GS, Wu RR, Orlando LA. Family health history: underused for personalized medicine and prevention. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2019;129(11):4419-4421. doi:10.1172/JCI128620
- 8.Wu RR, Myers RA, Sperber N, et al. Implementation, adoption, and utility of family health history risk assessment in diverse care settings. Genetics in Medicine. 2019;21(2):331-338. doi:10.1038/s41436-018-0049-x
Guidance changes over time. Screening and genetic counseling recommendations should be confirmed with your own healthcare professional.
