Anyone here pass on sequential screening?

Leigha12

If so, why? DH and I are trying to figure out if we're going to go through with the sequential screening when we know we won't do any further, potentially harmful, testing. If you passed on sequential screening, mind sharing why?

 TIA!

marriedsisterofbride

We passed on a lot of that testing because our doctor says that it is very common to give false positives. And why be worried for 6 months over nothing. If our child were to have downs syndrome or another chomosonal issue we would love it anyway and wouldn't have an abortion over it. We discussed this long before being pregnant.

psychgrrl

We decided not to do it, too.  Mostly because I know myself and ANY indication that there might be something wrong would just cause me to worry, do unwarranted research an all things related to chromosomal disorders, and plan for something that might not even happen.  That and unless there was something like a 99% chance there would be something wrong I probably wouldn't go through with amnio anyway due to risks.  At the end of the day, it just didn't seem worth the worry to find out.

WildcatPrincess

We're not doing it this time around because of the false positives and no desire to do further testing. Major issues will be caught on the a/s, though I do know that's not a guarantee. The thing that cemented my decision was meeting a mom with a Downs baby who did all the testing, came back low risk (with some soft markers) and was essentially told not to worry about it, but it turned out her baby did have Downs. I feel like there's no way of knowing for sure without an amnio (I know there are other level u/s etc, but genetic testing is the absolute).

eav2c

Similiar to what other posters said, we are passing on extra screening because of the false positives. My doctor told me on Thursday he's required to ask every paitent but prefers paitents under 35 to refrain from the testing. He did say, however, that women above 35 should get the screening... He feels the risk of getting extra testing is far lower than the chance of an abnormaity--pertaining to 35+. Not sure on your age, but that was just my doctors opinion. He did say the only thing the false positives correlated with were late pregnancy miscarriages and stillborns... Personally, I'd rather avoid the concern and alarm from the very start and keep my stress level down as much as I can. One thing doctor did say was we could change our mind after we do the gender determination--depending on how everything looked with baby. So, I will keep my options open, if something doesn't look right... I'm not sure if you have that option?

 

Rachie4

marriedsisterofbride:

We passed on a lot of that testing because our doctor says that it is very common to give false positives. And why be worried for 6 months over nothing. If our child were to have downs syndrome or another chomosonal issue we would love it anyway and wouldn't have an abortion over it. We discussed this long before being pregnant.

This exactly 

Leigha12

Thanks for your responses. We're in a position where we won't due an amnio, etc and we won't terminate. I'm starting to lean toward the "why bother stressing out over potential false positives" camp, but I haven't fully made up my mind. DH is still leaning toward the "rather be prepared" camp. I just wanted some outside opinions to weigh in. I appreciate it!

funkymonkeyohyeahhh

Leigha12:

Thanks for your responses. We're in a position where we won't due an amnio, etc and we won't terminate. I'm starting to lean toward the "why bother stressing out over potential false positives" camp, but I haven't fully made up my mind. DH is still leaning toward the "rather be prepared" camp. I just wanted some outside opinions to weigh in. I appreciate it!

From the perspective of someone who would not terminate and would not do a CVS or an amnio either, but DID do the NT scan and found an elevated measurement, I would pass. We were very pro-NT scan to "be prepared" prior to our experience, but now we aren't any more prepared than before... just stressed. Our baby's nuchal translucency was elevated, but not outrageously so. It really is in the "it could go either way and more often than not works out" category... which again just leaves us with it in the back of our minds for the next 6 months. 

Because we're not moving forward with further testing, there really isn't anything we can do except move forward and hope for the best. Our doctor did say the anatomy scan and echo cardiogram (that's standard procedure after an increased measurement) could come back great and show no problems, but it wouldn't mean the baby was perfectly healthy either. He did say that major problems would show up on those scans though.

I am realizing that because we won't get further testing, we'll just be wondering for the rest of our pregnancy. For further pregnancies, we will not have the NT scan. If everything would have been perfect with our scan, I would have a different opinion because I would've felt really reassured by it. Then again, I have found through my research that a great NT scan doesn't always mean everything is perfectly healthy anyway.

devious1031

Too many false positives for my liking.