Anyone refuse the quad screen?

BarnStar · December 2008

I have my 16wk appt in a couple of weeks, and I need to decide by then if we want to do the quad screen. DH seems pretty set against it, but I don't think he really knows much about the test. I know it can help provide the risks of Downs Syndrome, Spina Bifida, and trisomy disorders. But would these be detected by u/s at our big scan at 20wks anyway?

My thought is to do it since it's just a blood draw and I need to have blood drawn that appt anyway. But I need some pros and cons to really discuss this with DH and make a decision. Thoughts?

buckeyebabe99 · December 2008

We did and I am so glad that we made that decision.

Kristyn4 · December 2008

I have been wondering the same thing. But I am not sure if I want it. After all I have been through, I wouldn't do anything differently. And I know a lot of women who have gotten a false positive, and it was really hard for them.?

That being said, I can totally understand why someone would get the test done. ?

mandyjn16 · December 2008

As far as spina bifida goes, yes that should be detectable at your big u/s.

Pros-- +have an idea if something might be wrong before big u/s and you won't be blindsided. Information earlier gives you more choices if you find something terribly wrong. Or if not then you can relax earlier.

Cons-- I am not sure how many times the results cause worry that later turns out to be nothing.

gremaud07 · December 2008

We chose not to do it with this baby and heard that a lot of times the results are not accurate..

GeminiKMP-C · December 2008

My DH was also against it. His point of view was that it wouldn't change anything and if we did find out our child had a developmental problem, I would be stressed out for 20 more weeks when there's nothing that could be done anyway. I agreed in the end and I'm happy with our decision. I really haven't given it a second thought... and I think you're right that some of those issues would probably be detectable on an u/s. Good luck with your decision!

YukonC · December 2008

We did it with our first pregnancy and got a bad result, which led to a level two u/s and ultimately indicated a preeclampsia risk. Increased levels of inhibin A can be an indicator of pre-e to come. We did it with Abby because we did not do the NT scan.

Although, it was tough to deal with the bad result, we did do it again this time and will get the results next week. This time I did it mostly to check my levels to see if they would indicate pre-e again since we had a good NT scan and had no reason to think there would be anything wrong.

It can have false positives if your dates are off, but it is a simple blood draw and I think in general it's less invasive than an amnio to test for genetic issues. HTH.

LoveEeyore · December 2008

I refused. Mythinking was I loved and treasured pregnancy, and didn't need added worry. If my child had special needs, I'd have a lifetime to learn about it. I wanted to be my baby first... if I'd learned she'd had something, I'd spend the rest of my pregnancy obsessed about the disorder. But that's my personality. Some people do better with preparation...

BarnStar · December 2008

I should mention - we also did not have an NT scan, so really we would be denying pretty much all testing, with the exception of the "big u/s."

And, my local (rural) hospital does not have a NICU, so if there were some complications with baby that were not detected until birth, we would need to be transported about 1.5 hours away. That's why I wonder if these things could be detected via u/s or not?

We both agree that we would not terminate based on the results we receive, regardless.

BaBayB · December 2008

Like you regardless of test results we believe we would not terminate. I do feel though that if we had an elavated risk we would switch to a different hospital just to give our little baby the best care. We also feel that we would want to be better prepared.

CaseBride · December 2008

We refused it and could not be happier with our decision. It would not change what we were doing with the PG, and it has a lot of false positives... If I got a positive result, I'm not sure I could resist having an amnio, to know for sure, and that test has a 1/200 risk of causing a miscarriage. So I wanted to avoid that possibility even.

Thank god we just had our 20 week and everything looks great.

GL with your decision!

daisy58 · December 2008

I refused. one less thing to worry about

Huggy Bear · December 2008

Sigh...I am now going through the stress of having "increased risk" for downs with the first part of the sequential screening (NT and blood test). I will be taking the quad screen next week. I hear that sometimes the big u/s does not detect disorders all of the time, but on the other hand this sequential screening is not diagnostic and just gives you probabilities.

Miracle Social Worker · December 2008

I had the NT scan and the AFP. I declined the quad screen, the other tests are more reliable from what my MD told me. I had a cousin get a false positive, so I was more leary....

porkchop78 · December 2008

We declined all screening and I'm glad we did. I didn't need something else to worry about. If it would have told me there was a zero chance of a problem, I'd do it. Regardless of if I was 1 in 1000 or 1 in 5000, I'd still worry that I was that 1, so I didn't want to know. I was also told that there isn't anything that could be detected that they would need to be prepared for upon delivery if there was a problem.

justgnat · December 2008

I asked my Dr. what would be the point if we didn't plan to terminate either way. He said he recommends it b/c if there is a potential problem they can schedule a c/s and have a pediatric specialist in the OR to check the baby out at birth.

joanne511 · December 2008

I really struggled but decided to do it. And I'm glad I did, because our baby has a cyst and due to my quad results they've decided the cyst is not a concern. Here are some of my blog posts about it, including my asking about what would be picked up at the big u/s:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Good luck in deciding!

maramarrie · December 2008

since it was inaccurate with our first pg (didn't detect elevated downs risk even though baby did have downs) I thought it was a useless test. Also since we had the NT scan, I figured we didn't need the less accurate result from a quad screen; but the doc wanted to do it because it can reinforce the result from the NT scan. Kind of like they used them together to reassure us, I guess. It still came back fine and I still trust the NT result more than the quad screen based on our previous experience, but I didn't refuse it since the doc wanted to go ahead and do it this time.

pahokie · December 2008

We have some time to decide, but are currently leaning away from it. Our doc quoted a false positive rate of 30%, which is just crazy high!

LindseyS0504 · December 2008

We decided against it. Like you, we wouldn't terminate, and my doc said that anything that the quad screen tested for, we could see at the 20 week u/s. I think whether it's a blood test or the 20 week u/s, you would be "blindsided" that something was wrong. Are you ever really prepared to hear that? No. Doc and nurse said that there are A LOT of false positives, which would cause worry and need for additional testing. If the doc were to see something at the big u/s, then you would have plenty of time to change hospitals to one with a NICU, if needed. For me, it is worth going along for another 4 weeks enjoying being pregnant and believing that I have a healthy baby growing inside of me.

Darreth · December 2008

We did, although I was against it at first. I wouldn't terminate regardless and yes, any big issues (most) can be detected at the u/s. But my doctor suggested it saying "I'm not asking you to get this test to possibly diagnose your baby and terminate, I'm asking you to get this test so we can know if there need to be any special doctors at delivery to get your baby the best help possible as soon as possible...." I liked that she wanted to be proactive against anything like. Our results came back normal and I was able to (mostly) relax through the rest of my pregnancy. It's definitely your decision, but if you haven't, you should discuss with your doctor.

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