Genetic disorders may also be complex, multifactorial, or polygenic, meaning they are likely associated with the effects of multiple genes in combination with lifestyles and environmental factors. Multifactorial disorders include heart disease and diabetes. Although complex disorders often cluster in families, they do not have a clear-cut pattern of inheritance. This makes it difficult to determine a person’s risk of inheriting or passing on these disorders. Complex disorders are also difficult to study and treat, because the specific factors that cause most of these disorders have not yet been identified. Studies which aim to identify the cause of complex disorders can use several methodological approaches to determine genotype-phenotype associations. One method, the genotype-first approach, starts by identifying genetic variants within patients and then determining the associated clinical manifestations. This is opposed to the more traditional phenotype-first approach, and may identify causal factors that have previously been obscured by clinical heterogeneity, penetrance, and expressivity.

On a pedigree, polygenic diseases do tend to "run in families", but the inheritance does not fit simple patterns as with Mendelian diseases. But this does not mean that the genes cannot eventually be located and studied. There is also a strong environmental component to many of them (e.g., blood pressure).

- asthma

- autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis

- cancers

- ciliopathies

- cleft palate

- diabetes

- heart disease

- hypertension

- inflammatory bowel disease

- intellectual disability

- mood disorder

- obesity

- refractive error

- infertility

One European study reported a rate of 1 in 254,000; a Japanese study reported a rate of 1 in 357,143. No correlation with other inherited characteristics, or with ethnic origin, is known.

The prognosis for individuals with severe LNS is poor. Death is usually due to renal failure or complications from hypotonia, in the first or second decade of life. Less severe forms have better prognoses.

Stimmler syndrome is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder whose symptoms appear before birth or during infancy. In a study of two sisters born within a year of each other, both with Stimmler syndrome, it was found that high levels of alanine, pyruvate, and lactate were present in both the blood and urine. It was believed that the alanine was derived from the pyruvate.

Symptoms for the disease include microcephaly, a low birth weight, dwarfism, small teeth, and diabetes. The symptoms of Stimmler syndrome are closely related to a disease studied by Haworth et al. in 1967 as well as Leigh subacute necrotizing encephalopathy with lactic acidosis

Mental retardation and microcephaly with pontine and cerebellar hypoplasia (MICPCH), also known as Mental retardation, X-linked, syndromic, Najm type (MRXSNA), is a rare genetic disorder of infants characterised by intellectual disability and pontocerebellar hypoplasia.

The disorder is associated with a mutation in the "CASK" gene which is transmitted in an X-linked manner. As with the vast majority of genetic disorders, there is no known cure to MICPCH.

The following values seem to be aberrant in children with CASK gene defects: lactate, pyruvate, 2-ketoglutarate, adipic acid and suberic acid, which seems to backup the proposal that CASK affects mitochondrial function. It is also speculated that phosphoinositide 3-kinase in the inositol metabolism is impacted in the disease, causing folic acid metabolization problems.

The severity of different forms of PCH varies, but many children inheriting the mutated gene responsible do not survive infancy or childhood; nevertheless, some individuals born with PCH have reached adulthood.

The long-term prognosis of Costeff syndrome is unknown, though it appears to have no effect on life expectancy at least up to the fourth decade of life. However, as mentioned previously, movement problems can often be severe enough to confine individuals to a wheelchair at an early age, and both visual acuity and spasticity tend to worsen over time.

Different genetic causes and types of Leigh syndrome have different prognoses, though all are poor. The most severe forms of the disease, caused by a full deficiency in one of the affected proteins, cause death at a few years of age. If the deficiency is not complete, the prognosis is somewhat better and an affected child is expected to survive 6–7 years, and in rare cases, to their teenage years.

Due to the wide range of genetic disorders that are presently known, diagnosis of a genetic disorder is widely varied and dependent of the disorder. Most genetic disorders are diagnosed at birth or during early childhood, however some, such as Huntington's disease, can escape detection until the patient is well into adulthood.

The basic aspects of a genetic disorder rests on the inheritance of genetic material. With an in depth family history, it is possible to anticipate possible disorders in children which direct medical professionals to specific tests depending on the disorder and allow parents the chance to prepare for potential lifestyle changes, anticipate the possibility of stillbirth, or contemplate termination. Prenatal diagnosis can detect the presence of characteristic abnormalities in fetal development through ultrasound, or detect the presence of characteristic substances via invasive procedures which involve inserting probes or needles into the uterus such as in amniocentesis.

Multiple sulfatase deficiency (also known as "Austin disease", and "mucosulfatidosis") is a very rare autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease caused by a deficiency in multiple sulfatase enzymes, or in formylglycine-generating enzyme, which activates sulfatases. It is similar to mucopolysaccharidosis.

Baller–Gerold syndrome is caused by a mutation in the RECQL4 gene found on chromosome 8p24. Molecular genetic tests used to identify mutations in the RECQL4 gene include targeted variant analysis and sequence analysis of the entire coding region of the gene. These methods look for changes in the sequence encoding RECQL4, as having a deleterious mutation in the gene will change the protein and disrupt its usual function. RECQL4 is a gene that encodes a DNA helicase in the RecQ helicase family. Helicases are involved with unwinding DNA in preparation for DNA replication and repair.

Baller–Gerold syndrome is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance, meaning that an affected child gets one mutant allele from each parent to produce the syndrome. A carrier is someone who has one mutant allele but does not does have any symptoms. If both parents are carriers, there is a 25% chance the child will have BGS. There is also a 50% chance the child will have one mutant copy (be a carrier) and be asymptomatic and a 25% chance the child will be asymptomatic and not a carrier. In order for someone to have BGS, they need to have two mutant copies of the gene. Adults may pursue genetic counselling to understand the syndrome, as well as the risks and choices regarding family planning.

De Barsy syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder. Symptoms include cutis laxa (loose hanging skin) as well as other eye, musculoskeletal, and neurological abnormalities. It is usually progressive, manifesting side effects that can include clouded corneas, cataracts, short stature, dystonia, or progeria (premature aging).

It was first described in 1967 by De Barsy et al. and, as of 2011, there have been 27 cases reported worldwide. The genes that cause De Barsy syndrome have not been identified yet, although several studies have narrowed down the symptoms' cause. A study by Reversade et al. has shown that a mutation in PYCR1, the genetic sequence that codes for mitochondrial enzymes that break down proline, are prevalent in cases of autosomal recessive cutis laxa (ARCL), a condition very similar to De Barsy syndrome. A study by Leao-Teles et al. has shown that De Barsy syndrome may be related to mutations in ATP6V0A2 gene, known as ATP6V0A2-CDG by the new naming system.

Alternative names for De Barsy syndrome include corneal clouding-cutis laxa-mental retardation, cutis laxa-growth deficiency syndrome, De Barsy–Moens–Diercks syndrome, and progeroid syndrome of De Barsy.

While there is no cure for BGS, symptoms can be treated as they arise. Surgery shortly after birth can repair craniosynostosis, as well as defects in the hand to create a functional grasp. There are risks associated with untreated craniosynostosis, therefore surgery is often needed to separate and reshape the bones. Since patients with a RECQL4 mutation may be at an increased risk of developing cancer, surveillance is recommended.

MSD has an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern.

The inheritance probabilities "per birth" are as follows:

- If both parents are carriers:

- 25% (1 in 4) children will have the disorder

- 50% (2 in 4) children will be carriers (but unaffected)

- 25% (1 in 4) children will be free of MSD - unaffected child that is not a carrier

- If one parent is affected and one is free of MSD:

- 0% (0) children will have the disorder - only one parent is affected, other parent always gives normal gene

- 100% (4 in 4) children will be carriers (but unaffected)

- If one parent is a carrier and the other is free of MSD:

- 50% (2 in 4) children will be carriers (but unaffected)

- 50% (2 in 4) children will be free of MSD - unaffected child that is not a carrier

In the world less than 1 in 1.00.000 have HIDS [5]. 200 individuals throughout the world do suffer from MVK.

Based on the results of worldwide screening of biotinidase deficiency in 1991, the incidence of the disorder is:

5 in 137,401 for profound biotinidase deficiency

- One in 109,921 for partial biotinidase deficiency

- One in 61,067 for the combined incidence of profound and partial biotinidase deficiency

- Carrier frequency in the general population is approximately one in 120.

Costeff syndrome, or 3-methylglutaconic aciduria type III, is a genetic disorder caused by mutations in the "OPA3" gene. It is typically associated with the onset of visual deterioration (optic atrophy) in early childhood followed by the development of movement problems and motor disability in later childhood, occasionally along with mild cases of cognitive deficiency. The disorder is named after Hanan Costeff, the doctor who first described the syndrome in 1989.

There is no cure for Menkes disease. Early treatment with injections of copper supplements (in the form of acetate salts) may be of some slight benefit. Among 12 newborns who were diagnosed with MNK, 92% were alive at age 4.6. Other treatment is symptomatic and supportive. Treatments to help relieve some of the symptoms includes, pain medication, anti-seizure medication, feeding tube when necessary, and physical and occupational therapy.

X-linked recessive inheritance is a mode of inheritance in which a mutation in a gene on the X chromosome causes the phenotype to be expressed in males (who are necessarily hemizygous for the gene mutation because they have one X and one Y chromosome) and in females who are homozygous for the gene mutation, see zygosity.

X-linked inheritance means that the gene causing the trait or the disorder is located on the X chromosome. Females have two X chromosomes, while males have one X and one Y chromosome. Carrier females who have only one copy of the mutation do not usually express the phenotype, although differences in X chromosome inactivation can lead to varying degrees of clinical expression in carrier females since some cells will express one X allele and some will express the other. The current estimate of sequenced X-linked genes is 499 and the total including vaguely defined traits is 983.

Some scholars have suggested discontinuing the terms dominant and recessive when referring to X-linked inheritance due to the multiple mechanisms that can result in the expression of X-linked traits in females, which include cell autonomous expression, skewed X-inactivation, clonal expansion, and somatic mosaicism.

About 1 in 4,000 children in the United States will develop mitochondrial disease by the age of 10 years. Up to 4,000 children per year in the US are born with a type of mitochondrial disease. Because mitochondrial disorders contain many variations and subsets, some particular mitochondrial disorders are very rare.

The average number of births per year among women at risk for transmitting mtDNA disease is estimated to approximately 150 in the United Kingdom and 800 in the United States.

Kearns–Sayre syndrome occurs spontaneously in the majority of cases. In some cases it has been shown to be inherited through mitochondrial, autosomal dominant, or autosomal recessive inheritance. There is no predilection for race or sex, and there are no known risk factors. As of 1992 there were only 226 cases reported in published literature.

This disorder, epidemiologically speaking, is thought to affect approximately 1 in 50,000 newborns according to Jethva, et al. While in the U.S. state of California there seems to be a ratio of 1 in 35,000.

While carrier females are generally an asymptomatic condition, they do experience an increase in uric acid excretion, and some may develop symptoms of hyperuricemia, and suffer from gout in their later years. Testing in this context has no clinical consequence, but it may reveal the possibility of transmitting the trait to male children. Women may also require testing if a male child develops LNS. In this instance, a negative test means the son's disease is the result of a new mutation, and the risk in siblings is not increased.

Females who carry one copy of the defective gene are carriers with a 50% chance of passing the disease on to their sons. In order for a female to be affected, she would need to have two copies of the mutated gene, one of which would be inherited from her father. Males affected with LNS do not usually have children due to the debilitating effects of the disease. It is possible for a female to inherit an X chromosome from her unaffected father, who carries a new mutation of the HGPRT gene. Under these circumstances, a girl could be born with LNS, and though there are a few reports of this happening, it is very rare. The overwhelming majority of patients with LNS are male.

There are different signs and symptoms for different forms of pontocerebellar hypoplasia, at least six of which have been described by researchers. All forms involve abnormal development of the brain, leading to slow development, movement problems, and intellectual impairment.

The following values seem to be aberrant in children with CASK gene defects: lactate, pyruvate, 2-ketoglutaric acid, adipic acid, and suberic acid which seems to support the thesis that CASK affects mitochondrial function.