DS testing ..MaterniT21 or Harmony??

Mr&MrsMTA · December 2012

So I am only 4 wks along BUT DH and I are a bit nervous...DH's sister has a daughter with DS and a son with Autism she had her daughter with DS when she was 25yrs old. Any way so DH and I are of course a little nervous and are going to be ordering extra testing to see if we have a positive DS and then we will make a dicision on what we would like to do.

My question is did you test with Harmony or MaterniT21 and what did you think of each? Also how do you feel about amnio testing?

MAtoNC · December 2012

Mr&MrsMTA:
So I am only 4 wks along BUT DH and I are a bit nervous...DH's sister has a daughter with DS and a son with Autism she had her daughter with DS when she was 25yrs old. Any way so DH and I are of course a little nervous and are going to be ordering extra testing to see if we have a positive DS and then we will make a dicision on what we would like to do.

My question is did you test with Harmony or MaterniT21 and what did you think of each? Also how do you feel about amnio testing?

I know that this wasn't your question, but I strongly urge you and your DH not to wait to discuss what you would do in the case that you have a positive result on a screening. It is a really good idea to have discussion about what you want to do in the event of a positive result without all of the emotions that come into play. This doesn't mean that your feelings may not change if faced with bad news, it just will help so much to know where the two of you stand. And if you have differing views, you can talk it out in the hypothetical first without so much at stake.

Our son is 3 years-old. The Harmony and MaterniT21 are so new that they weren't available when we were pregnant. We did a CVS diagnostic test. It came back negative for T13, 18, and 21 (the trisomies covered in the screenings you are talking about). 7 days later, it came back positive for a pretty big genetic anomaly. Thank goodness we had already discussed our feelings prior to the test. It was such a difficult time as it was.

The anomaly my son has, he inherited from his father (who didn't know he had it), and our son so far doesn't display anything out of the ordinary. However, having the test results allowed us to monitor the pregnancy in a way that would allow us to be prepared for any medical treatment that our son could potentially need when he was born.

MrsNukem · December 2012

MAtoNC:

The anomaly my son has, he inherited from his father (who didn't know he had it), and our son so far doesn't display anything out of the ordinary. However, having the test results allowed us to monitor the pregnancy in a way that would allow us to be prepared for any medical treatment that our son could potentially need when he was born.

MAtoNC, I have a question for you. Would you mind if I sent you a PM?

danuli8 · December 2012

I got the MT21. I think MT21 is the only one of the three that will also tell you the sex of the baby, but the others might be adding that service as well.

I agree with PPs urging you to think about what you would do if a screening came back positive BEFORE you actually take any of these tests.

boymamaco · December 2012

Wow, these must be new since the last time I was pregnant. I miscarried so never had the chance to opt for a CVS but I dont remember the other two options. Were these offered by your regular OB? When do you do the testing?

lalee73 · December 2012

We did the materniti21 test after a 1/20 of DS came back after our first tri screening. Our test was positive. After much research and speaking with other parents of DS children we decided that we did not want to terminate unless the baby had significant heart/other issues. We didn't do a amnio due to increased risk since I have a anterior placenta so we have done a fetal echo with a group of pediatric cardiologists and then today had a repeat A/S.

All of our MD's believe in the accuracy of the materniti21 and since we have no "major" medical issues we have chosen to skip the amnio and continue on with the pregnancy and plan of raising a child with DS

I also agree you need to discuss your thoughts with each other prior to testing because it is such a blow when and if you receive that positive diagnosis.

ShellBear+ · December 2012

I believe each test is only offered in certain areas of the country so you will need to check with your doctor. There is another one called Verifi. I was told that maternit21 is the only one offered here but I opted not to get it after my screenings were normal. Good luck.

NBBride05 · December 2012

I had the Harmony Test and am very glad that I did. The quad screening results came back with 1/32 at first and then 1/7 odds after the 2nd trimester blood work. Knowing there are a lot of false positives on the quad screening, we jumped at the chance to do the Harmony Test. Our Harmony Test was negative (1/10,000) so we opted not to do the amnio because of Harmony's accuracy rate of 99%. We did not want to do the amnio due to the risk of loss and since I had already lost one baby. We also did a fetal echo that came back completely normal and have had 3 measurement u/s...there have been no problems to arise.

Momof2hopingfor3 · December 2012

My MFM offers all three tests: harmony, verifi, maternit21. We were part of the sequenom study in 2010, so I had assumed we would go with that test (maternit21). Plus, we thought it would be fun to know gender. But, our two most recent previous losses were chromosome abnormalities so harmony was recommended.

Harmony is the only test of the three that lets you know if your result is borderline or high risk. The other two are simply + or -. That means, you can be just one point over the line and still be negative and never know how close to positive you were. Because of our history, we wanted to know if we passed with flying colors or just squeaked by. That was much more important to us than knowing gender at 11 weeks. And, our MFM recommends additional testing for both a positive AND a high risk result. It just wasn't enough for me to hear it was negative. I needed to hear that we were negative and low risk negative. I hope that makes sense. So, we opted for harmony.

Good luck with whatever you decide and with your journey!

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