Family Gene

The author of Family Gene has a rare genetic mutation that appears only in her immediate family. It seems to be sexed-linked, only passed down from mother to child. However, men are more severely impacted. It leads to bloating and excessive fluid production and an early death - though typically after child-bearing years. She is lucky enough to have connections to a medical research community that is studying her condition and seeking out a cure. Alas, for now all they can do is small treatments to help lesson the impact.
during much of her twenties she was quite a rebellious type (to a degree impacted by the decline and early death of her father.) She tried to get health insurance, however, was unable to due to a benign heart murmur that had been diagnosed earlier. This makes a good case for a better socialized medicine. She also found she was nearly completely Ashkenazi Jew. The narrow gene pool has allowed various mutations to propagate. (As a side, she also talked about the "blue" people of Appalachia who had a recessive trait that was passed along a tight-nit population.) You wonder how many other odd conditions are out there that we don't know about