How to Make a Medical Genogram ​

If you're building a genogram to track medical history for a class, a clinical intake, or just to see what runs in your family across generations, the process is the same as any genogram. What changes is what you put on it: conditions, cause of death, age of onset, and what those reveal once you step back and look at the whole diagram.

How to Make a Medical Genogram: Step by Step ​

These are six steps to make a medical genogram.

Step 1: Gather the medical information ​

Collect this before drawing anything. The structure goes quickly. The information is what takes time.

Always needed:

• Names, genders, and relationships.
• Diagnosed conditions for each person.
• Cause of death and approximate age for deceased members.
• Age of onset for major conditions where known.

Extras:

• Mental health diagnoses.
• Substance use history.
• Genetic or hereditary conditions.

For this walkthrough, we’ll use the Prentiss-Wood family. Here’s information on them:

Two threads are already visible before drawing anything: a cardiovascular thread running through the paternal line, and a mental health thread appearing in the second and third generations. The diagram will make these more visible at once.

Step 2: Build the family structure ​

Place three generations using standard genogram rules.

Using the Prentiss-Wood family:

• George (square, marked with an X; deceased) on the left, and Helen (circle) on the right, connected by a solid marriage line at the top.
• Mark and Anne are below them on the same horizontal level, birth order left to right; Mark on the left, Anne on the right.
• Mark gets a double outline; he's the primary person.
• Carol connects to Mark's right with a solid marriage line.
• David connects to Anne's left with a solid marriage line.
• Tyler and Sophie will be below Mark and Carol on a sibling bar.
• Liam will be below Anne and David.

Prentiss-Wood 3-Generation Family Genogram

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At this point, it looks like any other basic genogram. The next steps are what make it medical.

Step 3: Add health conditions ​

Attach each condition directly to the person it belongs to, as a label on or near their symbol.

Using the Prentiss-Wood family:

• George: heart disease.
• Helen: type 2 diabetes, hypertension.
• Mark: high blood pressure.
• Anne: depression.
• David: anxiety.
• Sophie: anxiety.
• Liam: ADHD.

Write conditions as precisely as you have them. "Diabetes" tells you little. "Type 2 diabetes" tells a physician something different from "type 1." The specificity is what makes the diagram useful.

Prentiss-Wood Family Genogram Showing Medical Conditions

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Step 4: Add the age of onset and the cause of death ​

For deceased members, the cause of death and age should be part of their symbol.

For living members with chronic conditions, the age of onset helps distinguish early-onset (more likely genetic) from late-onset (more likely lifestyle-related).

Using the Prentiss-Wood family:

• George: heart attack, died at 70.
• Helen: type 2 diabetes, mid-60s onset.
• Mark: high blood pressure, diagnosed at 45.
• Anne: depression, diagnosed in her mid-30s.
• David: anxiety, mid-30s onset.
• Sophie: anxiety, onset at 17.
• Liam: ADHD, diagnosed at 12.

Prentiss-Wood Family Genogram Showing Medical Conditions and Ages

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PNG↓PDF↓

Mark's diagnosis at 45, compared to his father's fatal event at 70, is the kind of thing the diagram surfaces once you put the ages in. The same organ system, but 25 years earlier in Mark's life.

The same logic applies on the mental health side: Sophie's anxiety at 17 and Liam's ADHD at 12 sit visibly below parents who were diagnosed in their mid-30s (in Sophie's case, her aunt). Whether that gap narrows in the next generation is a question the diagram lets you ask.

It's important to add the ages of the family members. If you don't know the exact age, write an approximate range. Leave it blank only as a last resort; even "mid-40s" is more useful than nothing.

Step 5: Read the patterns ​

Step back and look at the completed diagram as a whole.

This is what a medical genogram is for, not just for any single person's history, but what becomes visible across generations when you put everyone on the same page.

Cardiovascular thread: ​

• George died of a heart attack at 70.
• His son Mark was diagnosed with high blood pressure at 45, earlier in life, but in the same organ system.
• Tyler, at 22, sits at the base of that line with no conditions yet, but he now has to be mindful because of his family history.

Metabolic thread: ​

• Helen carries both type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
• Both conditions share known risk factors with cardiovascular disease.
• Mark's hypertension connects to both his father's cardiac history and his mother's metabolic profile simultaneously; a connection that's easy to miss in a written health history but visible at a glance in the diagram.
• Anne and Sophie also share this risk from their maternal side.

Mental health thread: ​

• Anne has depression.
• Her husband, David, has anxiety.
• Their son, Liam, has ADHD.
• Sophie, Anne's niece, also has anxiety.

Unlike the cardiovascular thread, where Tyler has no diagnosis yet, the mental health thread has already reached the third generation on both sides; Sophie is 19, and Liam is 12. It isn't something to watch for; it's already there.

For condition-specific examples, e.g., what a heart disease genogram looks like, a diabetes genogram, a cancer genogram, see medical genogram examples.

Step 6: Before You Call It Done ​

Run through this checklist before submitting or sharing the diagram.

• Every person has a name and a gender symbol.
• Deceased members are marked with an X and have the cause of death noted.
• Conditions are labeled specifically, not generically ("type 2 diabetes," not "diabetes").
• Age of onset is included where available.
• The legend accounts for every condition and symbol used.
• The primary person has a double outline.
• Each generation sits on the same horizontal level.

Related ​

How to Make a Genogram (Step-by-Step Guide)

Genogram Symbols

Medical Genogram Examples