Pregnant after 35

Are abornamalities all that common??

I am 35 and pregnant with my first baby. I'm 13 weeks and 1 day and any appointment that I've had the subject of testing and abnormalities has come up based on my age. I guess I'm just surprised at how much hospitals push these tests! I had the nuchal scan done, it was normal. I noticed they didn't look at the nasal section for anything, is this normal? I had the blood testing done just because if there is something wrong i want to know. The reason i think there COULD be something wrong is basically based on what I've read. I know one person who has a baby with downs and she had him at 27. Anyone I know who has a had a baby over 35 has had a healthy child. Why all these scary stats! Maybe more people have issues but they terminate those pregnancies? it's just frustrating that once they hear you're 35 it's like you're at risk.  I was normal for muscular dyst and cystic fibrosis...just waiting on the downs test now...even if my results are ok, that doesn't rule out the possibility of EVERYTHING being perfect. Maybe the baby will have some other issue that I wont find out about until he's 5. I'm just frustrated that this is supposed to be a happy time and i feel as though the dr's and nurses have just scared me. 

Re: Are abornamalities all that common??

  • I'm with you on this one. I did read that the science that these concerns are based on is horribly out of date and this perpetuates fear among ladies over the 35 age mark often unnecessarily. It's stressful enough being pregnant and dealing with the usual concerns that run through your head without unwanted possible concerns voiced by medical staff. They really should remember that their words are listened to and stored and churned around in pregnant brains and that can increase stress no end. Tact, diplomacy and empathy is what is required. Simple really.
    Master of 'the look' 
  • Even if i was 25 I would still want to know if there could possibly be something wrong with my baby. It doesn't seem fair that they scare just the 'older' people. Sorry I didn't meet my husband until later in life! Agh. 
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  • I had a friend with results that were positive for one of the issues that was incompatible with life, in other words her baby would not survive so she chose to terminate. I don't think it's that the issues are the common but it does happen and you are not forced to do any test, however IMO it's better to know as much as you can and be prepared for whatever happens. I had the NT scan and screenings done even before I was 35, but now I can do the Harmony testing since I am over 35. I'm ok with it. 
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  • What my doctor told me at my anatomy scan last week is that he feels there are now too many tests. Some are old, standard tests that he thinks will eventually go away. But in the meantime we are left with several tests as options. So most doctors go with the "standard" NT, blood, quad, etc but in our advanced maternal age group we get the other tests offered more routinely as well. He said it would be nice if they could somehow combine all the tests to form one result, but unfortunately some are too new and not widely available enough (like Verifi or Maternity 21) to be able to do that scientifically. I think he took a little extra time talking to me about this because my quad test came back with a 1/96 odds for Downs but all other tests (NT, Verifi, and then the anatomy scan) showed no sign of any problems.
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  • I had DS1 when I was 30 and did all the testing I could just so I could be prepared and to give DS1 all the support I could after he was born if there was anything wrong. I did the same thing with DS2 including the Panorama which didn't exsist with DS1. Of course there are things you won't know about until after the baby is born or older like Autism etc. but being prepared was way more important to me then dealing with a diagnosis at birth, dealing with post pregnancy and a newborn.
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  • Yes the testing and stress for AMA is alot and nerve racking.  My drs office doesn't offer the new Mat21, etc so I did choose to do the Panorama and the NT scan.  My midwife is pretty enlightened and once the results were in with no scary numbers I too feel pretty confident.  I hope you have a wonderful pregnancy!
  • I understand that it is nice to know. I just dont really understand why all the special tests for 35+ when the same things can happen when you're under 35. 
  • jbellejbelle member
    edited November 2013
    I'm not statistician, and maybe someone who understand these things better will chime in and correct me, but I'd say no, abnormalities are not all that common. However, "common" is relative. According to this page, about 1 in 800 infants born each year in the US have down syndrome, or about 6000 annually.

    Most children with down syndrome are born to mothers who are under age 35, and I believe, under age 30. This has to do with pure numbers, not risk factors. More children are born to women in this "lower risk" age range, so more children with abnormalities are born to this group.

    As far as the increase in risk, yes, the risks increase with maternal age and they increase dramatically. However, it goes back to what's "common"? The geneticist going over our numbers explained my risk, at age 37, was still only like 1.5% for trisomy 21. Compared to a 25 year old, that is a much greater chance. But I still felt really good about those odds, KWIM?

    Check out the wikipedia article on advanced maternal age. This list showing the risk a woman will have a baby with down syndrome really shows the change brought about by age:

    • At age 25, 1 in 1,250
    • At age 30, 1 in 1,000
    • At age 35, 1 in 400
    • At age 40, 1 in 100
    • At age 45, 1 in 30
    • At age 49, 1 in 10

    (I realize 1.5% doesn't exactly match up with the wikipedia numbers, but I'm citing two different sources and I can't really compare them since I'm pulling one--the number given by my geneticist--off the top of my head.)

    AMA & SAIF. TTC #1 since Oct. 2010. DX: Unexplained. BFP on break after 32 months trying and 2 med cycles. Baby girl born at 40w0d!

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    jbelle

  • I wish more docs would say what our genetics counselor did when I was pregnant w DD. A 1 in 400 chance means 399/400 times, everything will be just fine. When you put it that way, it's so much less scary. I feel the same about fertility. Yes, statistically, you are less likely to conceive over time. That does not mean a 35 yo is guaranteed to need IVF or that a healthy 25 yo won't need IVF. I conceived both times the first month we tried. And I will be 40 when this one is born. My BFF tried for 6 years in our 20s and didn't conceive until age 32, after she quit trying. We aren't statistics, and we really need to remember that. So do our docs.
  • MommyAtty said:
     A 1 in 400 chance means 399/400 times, everything will be just fine. 
    PRECISELY. This is exactly what should be emphasized. Saying 399/400 times everything will be fine (rather than 1/400 it won't) gives an explanation that will worry a pregnant lady far less. It's semantics, yes, but this stuff is important. Positive vibes is what's needed IMHO
    Master of 'the look' 
  • FWIW, I don't feel I was treated any differently in regards to testing when I was under 35 then I was this time being over 35. 
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  • Also remember the number of women over age 35 getting pregnancy and having children is much less overall than the number of women under 35  (yes #s for us over 35 are increasing)

    FWIW, I don't feel I was treated any differently in regards to testing when I was under 35 then I was this time being over 35.-  I have been, not drastically but yes different.  I didn't have ANY tests when I was 25-30...of course that was 16-11 years ago...so things have changed.  I didn't have an ultrasound to date the pregnancy they just gave me an edd based on my lmp even though my cycles are crazy..

  • Well I got my results and everything was 'normal'. So far so good :) 
  • Yay for the normal results!  

    I appreciated the opportunity to have the Mat21 test which it has sounded like is harder for women under 35 to get or at least get covered by insurance.  But I also really appreciate that the group of midwives I'm seeing don't seem really concerned about AMA and have stressed "you and your husband are both going into this really healthy" rather than our ages. 

     I also really appreciated that they did simplify the testing as a pp suggested - we didn't have the NT scan or quad screen.  I just had the Mat21 (though with more research since perhaps one of the other similar tests is slightly better?) because I really did want to know not so much about downs but about probability for one of the other 2 trisomies it screens for, and it seemed to be a much more accurate predictor than the NT scan even with the associated blood test.  Then I also just had a blood draw for just 1/4 of the quad screen - I forget the letters but the one that suggests something about spina bifida risk.  Then in a few weeks will be the a/s which I think most people get regardless of age and that is all.  I almost declined the blood test about spina bifida because it has a high-ish false positive rate but then the OB in the practice suggested that it also sometimes detects things that might not be seen in the a/s (esp. if not knowing to look extra extra carefully) and so I went for it even though it may bring extra anxiety for no good reason. 
    Me: 39  DH: 44  together since 2000 married 9/2004 TTC #1 since 2/2012
    BFP #1 6/5/2012  m/c 6/15/2012 about 5w3d   BFP #2 6/?/2013 m/c 7/1/2013 5w 3d
    BFP #3 8/25/2013  EDD 5/7/2014    DD A. born 5/8/2014!!  Love!!!!
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