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March 2014 Moms
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genetic screening telling sex of baby

clo1982clo1982 member
in March 2014 Moms
So at my crappy appointment last week, before I saw the dr, the nurse mentioned that during the 1st tri genetic screening (I believe it used to be the quad screen but is now called Harmony) they can also run a test that will tell me the sex of the baby. I was like 'whaaaaa????!!' It is just a blood test where they take my blood, not anything invasive but this is definitely something new to me! Has anyone else heard of this? I'm definitely not a medical genius by any stretch but I had no idea that 'boy blood' was different from 'girl blood' and that this type of thing could be revealed this early and in a blood test! I asked if it was accurate and the nurse said yes it is. Can anyone explain this medical mystery to me and has anyone had it done yet?
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Re: genetic screening telling sex of baby

  • amsatamsat member
    They analyze your blood.  If there is the boy chromosome (Y) in your blood, they know you are having a boy.  If you don't have the chromosome, then they know it's a girl.
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  • ceh789ceh789 member
    Wikipedia has a fairly good explaination of how it's done:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell-free_fetal_DNA

    The elevator version is that the placenta "sheds" some DNA into your blood - kind of like you shed skin cells.  The Harmony (other brands are Verifi, MaterniT21... there's another one I can't recall atm) test finds these shed DNA in your blood by virtue of them being smaller than your own and can then analyze the chromosomes that belong to the fetus.
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  • missperkymissperky member
    I'm between this board and February. A lot of the mom's have done the Harmony test and found out gender. There is also a test called Maternity21 and there's another one that can determine the gender and of course find out about risk of trisomy 13,18,21. All have been said to be very accurate. I can only assume they(the medical professionals) have found away to decode your blood and find baby's DNA. I'm sure there is a better explanation on the Harmony test on the website. 
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  • amsatamsat member

    Genetics counselor said it was 99.99% accurate. 

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  • 25meshia25meshia member
    You will be fine. Most doctors are using the harmony testing! Actually I'm having it done today myself!!!! Good luck
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  • clo1982clo1982 member
    Thanks for the info ladies! I guess i never even thought of the whole chromosome part of things, although now that you said it, it makes perfect sense.
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  • VineyardMelVineyardMel member
    This is a free cell DNA test--it doesn't replace the quad screen, it's a totally different type of test. And it's a lot more expensive so make sure you're insurance covers it. Harmony, MaterniT21 and Verifi are all essentially the same thing.
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