CVS testing

Hibiscus2007

Has anyone here had the CVS genetic testing done?  My peri is highly recommending it since we are having trips.  I know there is a risk of miscarrying also, which makes me nervous.  Can anyone give me the low down on their CVS experience?  TIA

nygrl79

Hi, I had the CVS done (and if you post on SAIF, you may get more responses).  I had a very good experience, but I went to the best, a guy that specializes only in first trimester invasive testing and pretty much does CVS proceedures several times per week.  The procedure has some risks, but they are small.  In fact, if you go to a place that does them all the time, their risks may be even lower than those for amnio.  I chose CVS because it is earlier than amnio (mine was done at 11w3d) and because the needle doesn't have to enter the amniotic sac (like it does with amnio, which freaks me out a bit).

The procedure itself was not pleasant, they put the needle in transabdominally both times and it was uncomfortable.  For baby B (who is closer to the middle), it wasn't very painful, just a lot of pressure/burning for 3-5 minutes.  For baby A, I must say it hurt, a lot, I even swore on the table.  A was lower and to the left.  The needles were nowhere near the babies though, I could see it on u/s and that made me very happy.

I went home right after the proceedure (after resting for about 10 minutes) and took the day off.  I worked from home the next day just in case.  I had no bleeding or major cramping related to the procedure and the very next day, when I went to see my MFM he looked at the placentas on u/s and said he couldn't even tell where the sample was taken from, there was no bruising or swelling.  So the procedure went well for me.

As a bonus, we found out the sexes.  We had preliminary results of the choromosomal analysis in 2 business days after the proceedure and final results in 8 days.  I am very glad I did it because it was important to me to know that my babies don't have downs, trisomy 18, 13, etc. 

In the end, it is a very personal decision and I wish you the best of luck.

 

ethansbride2b

our peri offered it also due to triplets, but since we would not terminate if there was a problem, we refused the test. 

 

EverAfterinMi

Why do you think you need this? Or why are they recommending it? My MFM's.. all 4 of them and my high risk OB discouraged all genetic testing (blood work, CVS, NT.. all of it) execept the amnio. And that was only if I thought I would really terminate if something were wrong with them. I don't know much about a CVS, but they told me that the NT and blood work are highly inaccurate for a HOM. They would do the amnio if I wanted it but other than that.. why bother?  And also.. you'll have so many level 2 ultrasounds, that if there is a marker for Downs or any other issues, we would have seen it and probably done an amnio to confirm. But that's the only way I would have done an amnio.

nygrl79

As a follow up to the pp, the NT scan will never be able to give you 100% accurate answer on downs or trisomies (I don't even think they can check for trisomy in the NT scan, I thought it was just for downs).  Something like 10-15% of NT scans are inaccurate (don't quote me on my %, but that is what I remember).  I know a lady who was told at her NT scan that her chances were very slim of having a child with downs and she didn't proceed with amnio as a result, but when she gave birth one of the babies had downs syndrome.  The blood test will also be useless because you are carrying multiples and they won't know the ratio and who the markers came from. If you want 100% accuracy, CVS or amnio arethe only way to go in the first trimester. 

I second what others have said though, it all depends on how you feel about termination in case of a bad result.  If you are sure that you won't terminate, then there is no reason to do any of the tests at all.