Markers / Gene
PGR
One position in this gene is readable from a home DNA test.
Neanderthal: the progesterone receptor
rs1042838 · chr11:100,933,412 · C/A · evidence: strong
About one European woman in three carries a progesterone receptor inherited from Neanderthals. In UK Biobank data, women carrying it had fewer bleedings in early pregnancy, fewer miscarriages and more children, which makes it one of the few archaic variants that looks clearly beneficial.
| If you carry | What it means |
|---|---|
| No copies | Not inherited |
| One copy | Inherited from one parent |
| Two copies | Inherited from both parents |
| Ancestry group | A (the effect version) | |
|---|---|---|
| African | 0.6% | |
| American | 13.7% | |
| East Asian | 1.0% | |
| European | 17.9% | |
| South Asian | 6.6% |
1000 Genomes Project phase 3, via Ensembl, retrieved 2026-09-23. These groupings are coarse and flatten a great deal of internal diversity, particularly within Africa. A variant being common somewhere tells you where a piece of your ancestry probably comes from, and nothing else.
Where this gene fits
If you have taken a home DNA test, these positions are already in your file.
Read my file