Meiotic linkage maps are the foundation of both linkage and linkage disequilibrium studies for mapping disease genes. Despite the importance of precise maps, existing genome-wide linkage maps were built using only a small collection of pedigrees, and so have wide confidence intervals surrounding estimates of map distance. Incorrect marker order and map distances can have a profound effect on linkage analyses. Using a sex-averaged map instead of a sex-specific map biases the lod scores upward, markedly increasing the false positive rate. Since it is very costly to follow-up many false-positive results, there is a clear need for more precise and accurate sex-specific genetic maps. Accurate estimates of meiotic map distance cannot be obtained by any means other than by linkage analysis using genotype data.