MaterniT21 test

Spencer1 · February 2013

I am new here....I am 7 weeks pregnant with my second child and just diagnosed again with GD.

I have been debating getting the new MaterniT21 test done. Has anyone gotten this test done? Is it a normal blood test? What can I expect?

TIA

punky917 · February 2013

I got this test done at 16 weeks but I am

punky917 · February 2013

I am pretty sure that you can get it done at 10 weeks. They take your blood and test for trisonomies. It takes about 710 business days. The results are either negative or positive more conclusive than first tri screening. They can also tell gender since they are analyzing DNA.

memali26 · February 2013

It was not available when I was pregnant, but a friend of mine had it done because her first child has Down Syndrome. She said it was just a blood draw, 2 vials, and the results were back fairly quickly - a week or so, I think? They were told the test is 99% accurate in testing for trisomy 21, 18, and 13. They were also able to find out the sex of the baby several weeks before their anatomy scan.

Spencer1 · February 2013

Thanks ladies! I was hoping that it was just a blood draw.

=Lee=B · February 2013

I had the testing (don't think it was MaterniT21) for Down Syndrome and other things early on. It was 2 blood tests and some ultrasound measurements at a specific time.

I personally didn't want it as it wouldn't have changed anything for me and would have been a more stressful pregnancy. I have studied Down Syndrome in College and have worked with numerous children with it so felt I would be able to pick up and go with it if/when our child was born. BUT, my husband has no experience with it and is an Engineer and needs to plan and prepare for things so I knew he would be best to have a head's up to best prepare him.

All our testing came back negative. It is a personal decision that you need to make. Would you end the pregnancy, and if not do you prefer to know now and have your pregancy to prepare yourselves or would you prefer to have a 'normal' pregnancy and find out when your child is born.

Just keep in mind the testing is not perfect so your results can say negative but your child can be born with Down Syndrome and more often, the test can come back saying you have an increased risk for Down Syndrome but baby be born perfectly fine.

Spencer1 · February 2013

Yeah I have heard it is basically a yes/no.

My doctor also said that this new test, she thinks, will ultimately replace the 1st trimester screening.

=Lee=B · February 2013

That makes sense, I'm in Canada so wasn't sure if it was just a different American name for the same thing!

99.3% sounds pretty amazing! I think mine was said to be like 80% accurate or something.

Wally3 · February 2013

I had the materntiT21 test. It is a yes/no blood test. I talked to my MFM about it. It is more reliable the later you are in pg. Also, if you have other indicators for downs you are less likely to get a false positive. We decide it was appropriate for me to get the blood test - I did not want to get an amino - which was recommend for me.

PipSqueak0313 · February 2013

I had the test done at around 12 weeks -- got the results about 8 days later. It is a simple blood test. They separate the fetal dna in the mom's blood and test it. So it can tell you if they find/do not find y chromosomes. If they find y's then you are having a boy but if they do not find y's then you just have a higher chance of having a girl instead of a boy.

We decided that the slight chance of the test being a false positive was not worth the equally slight chance of m/c associated with amnio and we (dh, myself and the drs) have proceeeded the assumption that LO has down syndrome. After the initial emotions of getting the positive results were addressed, this pg has been a normal, happy pg.

Ashleycerasuolo · February 2013

Just had this done Thursday still waiting for results. My baby had a high NT so they have me a choice. What I'm worried about is if it is positive they may want to do an amnio

PipSqueak0313 · February 2013

Ashleycerasuolo:
Just had this done Thursday still waiting for results. My baby had a high NT so they have me a choice. What I'm worried about is if it is positive they may want to do an amnio

Doing the amnio would be your choice. The doctors here agreed that the test is accurate enough to not need the amnio to treat LO as having down syndrome. I can't speak to how the doctors would treat the results if the test came back positive for the other trisomies that it tests for.

Ashleycerasuolo · February 2013

PipSqueak0313:
Ashleycerasuolo:
Just had this done Thursday still waiting for results. My baby had a high NT so they have me a choice. What I'm worried about is if it is positive they may want to do an amnio
Doing the amnio would be your choice.  The doctors here agreed that the test is accurate enough to not need the amnio to treat LO as having down syndrome.  I can't speak to how the doctors would treat the results if the test came back positive for the other trisomies that it tests for.

Isn't there a high risk of miscarriage?

PipSqueak0313 · February 2013

Ashleycerasuolo:
PipSqueak0313:
Ashleycerasuolo:
Just had this done Thursday still waiting for results. My baby had a high NT so they have me a choice. What I'm worried about is if it is positive they may want to do an amnio
Doing the amnio would be your choice. The doctors here agreed that the test is accurate enough to not need the amnio to treat LO as having down syndrome. I can't speak to how the doctors would treat the results if the test came back positive for the other trisomies that it tests for.
Isn't there a high risk of miscarriage?

A high risk of miscarriage with what? With the amnio and CVS, yes, there is a risk of miscarriage that I felt was higher than the risk of a false positive with the MaterniT21 test which is why we chose not to do either the amnio or CVS. However, I don't think the risk of m/c from either test is very high.

katharineb1980 · February 2013

i asked my doctor about the Materni21, she suggested i still do the NT screen since its still considered the gold standard of 12 week testing. If that came back at all odd, i would then opt for the Materni 21. Good Luck!!!

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