14 week gender ultrasound??

bsumter0330 · December 2015

How many of you plan to do this, how accurate is it?? I don't want to waste our money bc were being impatient! Lol

crdo · December 2015

Assessing the sex via u/s at 14 weeks isn't terribly accurate. If you want to know early, genetic testing via blood test is your best bet.

CopperLane · December 2015

I have heard that the elective places will guarantee gender and have a money back policy if they are wrong. I would only do an elective at one of these places.

splsmama2016 · December 2015

Is it elective? Why spend the money when you can wait till 18-20 and get a more accurate u/s? That's just my opinion. I'm waiting till the full anatomy (which also happens to be my next appointment anyways), as I'd like to keep u/s's to a minimum.

ahernandez16 · December 2015

The elective u/s place we thought of using to find out early says the best time is after 17 weeks. They claim they can assess at 15 weeks but even then, they highly recommend waiting until 17 weeks at the earliest.

GinnyJ2012 · December 2015

If you choose an early u/s make sure you go to one that will let you come back a few weeks later if the sex cannot be determined. 14 weeks is very early. I'd wait until 16 at least if possible.

NicknShan · December 2015

I have considered going to an elective place with a guarantee :-) (I would MOST DEFINITELY make sure they have a guarantee though) If you have the extra money, why not!?! I am very impatient. That being said, I am still waiting for the a/s. But I have been on two companies websites wondering if my husband would want a $99 gender screen for Christmas...

NLewis1 · December 2015

I have an ultrasound with my OB when I will be 14+5 - he told me we will learn the sex at that appt if we would like to know. I'm assuming if my very skilled and experienced OB is confident at that stage, it would be fairly accurate?

Bear14+ · December 2015

I went at 15 weeks with DS and will do it again this time. The place I go to won't do it before 15 weeks. I think it's pretty accurate if the baby is cooperating.

goldie987 · December 2015

I'm planning on just waiting until the anatomy scan, its only a few weeks later and then I can put the money we would have spent on an elective u/s towards something actually useful for the baby. Plus, I won't be buying anything for the baby until at least 24 weeks, likely closer to 30, so knowing a few weeks earlier really isn't going to do anything for us.

BPaisley · December 2015

I went to an elective place at 14 weeks with DS2 and they had no problem telling he was a boy. The earliest they will do them is 14 weeks and they seem pretty confident that they can tell at that point. They do bring you back for free if they have problems with the positioning to figure it out. I'm going to do it again at 14 weeks so my boys can open up a box and find out on Christmas Day (2 days later). I guess there is a chance of them being wrong that early but when I called last time around to ask about it they had no hesitation that they can tell by 14 weeks. I'll certainly keep it in the back of my mind that they could be off until the anatomy scan, but my guess would be that the tech will let you know if they aren't totally confident in their determination. Last time mine told us "it's a boy!" after like a minute of starting the ultrasound, so you could tell she was sure.

RNMegan0711 · December 2015

I'm having a 14 week one done on Monday. Not necessarily because I know it's going to be 100% accurate but because hubby won't be able to make our anatomy ultrasound at 20 weeks with our OB and we are looking at it as a $75 Christmas present of another beautiful look at our miracle. If they are able to tell and are relatively sure, that's great... We still won't be purchasing anything until our official 20 week anatomy scan but it'll be a sweet thing we can do together before Christmas. We still are undecided if we will tell our parents and family over Christmas what the gender is IF the 14 week scan results in a gender reveal though. Our Doctor personally said to wait until at least 16 weeks for a better confirmation so.. I'm not getting my hopes completely up and I'm going into it with more of an outlook of just another ultrasound that my husband and I get to experience together.

laurendiaz02 · December 2015

I scheduled an appointment for a 4d ultrasound on December 22nd. I will be 14 weeks then. We plan to surprise our families with the news of our pregnancy AND the sex of the baby for Christmas.

scotten · December 2015

We will be waiting until the 20 week anatomy scan this time, but we did the elective ultrasound with DD at 17/18 weeks on our wedding anniversary. My FIL had just passed away a few weeks earlier, and it was nice to have some fun, good news.

I think 14 weeks is pretty early, but if you have the money I say go for it! Just get the guarantee, like PP have said.

jerseygirl9090 · December 2015

We are getting ours done at 16 weeks and a few days. It's in 4D though 99 dollars. Early Christmas present for us

. Our friends went to this same place at 14 weeks and found out they are having a girl few months later sure enough she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.

Corts · December 2015

The one near me won't do it until 15 weeks and recommends holding off until 16 weeks.

NavyFlyer · December 2015

I found out about my son at 14 weeks and it was really obvious! I'm going at 15 weeks this time, because I want to tell my family for christmas. I say go for it!

tashandma · December 2015

We had ours done at 14w 5d and it was really obvious. We were impatient as well and I have no regrets!

bio-oesch · December 2015

I've been twice at 14wks to an elective 4d and both times they were correct. They have a guarantee, too. I have my appt Dec. 22nd so we can share the news on Christmas day

With a 3d u/s it's obvious to see the sex imo.

RNMegan0711 · December 2015

Going today!!!!!! So excited!

Lilwatz · December 2015

Last time we did an elective ultrasound at 16 weeks. Our OB office offers them for $50. I say if you have the money and are excited to find out, why wait? This time we debated doing it again at 14 weeks, but I think I'd want to wait longer since there is no guarantee at ours. But, looks like we are getting the genetic testing done for other reasons, so we won't have to.

Lilwatz · December 2015

One more thing. The only thing I have ever seen about risk to the baby from more ultrasounds is a study that showed babies who had more ultrasounds had a higher probability of being left-handed. A risk I am willing to take. With our daughter, we started at a fertility clinic and had two ultrasounds there, then I was high risk so we had more ultrasounds than normal throughout the pregnancy at the high risk OB. Toward the end, I had GD and they were worried about her growth being too fast (it was not--she came out a tiny little 6lb 5 oz nugget) and even more ultrasounds. If it were dangerous I doubt that many would have happened.

ahernandez16 · December 2015

After seeing how confident so many of you were with having them at 14 weeks, we scheduled one for just a few days before Christmas! I'll be 15 weeks, but we're going to let our family think our original date of finding out the sex (Jan 8) stands and surprise them on Christmas. So, nix my above comment. I say if you have the money, go for it! Ours is only $50.

kristinamarie10 · December 2015

I'm scheduling my 4d for a few days before Christmas too. I'll be 14.5 then, and like you said everyone has had their results so we're excited.

RNMegan0711 · December 2015

We had ours done today. I'm 14w0d. She knew within a minute and before we could even ask she said "I'm 101% sure it's a girl". We have pics of the "hamburger" but I figured I'd post the sweet one that we sent to family instead lol. We are so unbelievably excited!!!!!!!!!

tslmom87 · December 2015

My Dr does an ultrasound at every appointment so i haven't bothered going to one of those places. We've bugged him the last 2 times to see if he can tell. Baby is a turd and keeps it's foot between the legs! Lol. The 18th is my next dr appointment , I'll be 15 weeks hopefully we can get a look see then. Otherwise I have to wait for the a/s on Dec 28th.

Atlast111 · December 2015

Lilwatz said:
One more thing. The only thing I have ever seen about risk to the baby from more ultrasounds is a study that showed babies who had more ultrasounds had a higher probability of being left-handed. A risk I am willing to take. With our daughter, we started at a fertility clinic and had two ultrasounds there, then I was high risk so we had more ultrasounds than normal throughout the pregnancy at the high risk OB. Toward the end, I had GD and they were worried about her growth being too fast (it was not--she came out a tiny little 6lb 5 oz nugget) and even more ultrasounds. If it were dangerous I doubt that many would have happened.

It's not that they are dangerous as such. It's simply that there are no studies into the long term effects of overexposure. All health professionals recommend that you limit your scans to those that are necessary for health reasons because of this. I'm confused, if they have found a link between left handedness and scans surely this means the brain is being affected in some way.....and if this is the case who knows what else is being impacted.

HBamama2B · December 2015

@Atlast111 Yup! The best bet is always to limit all medical intervention when it's not mitigating a risk.

but... Let's break this down because I'm a nerd who loved research design. The link btwn left-handedness and scans could be a coincidental correlation, like ice cream sales and murder rates. Both go up at the same time but due to some other factor (clue: it's heat). There is a strong positive correlation but Ice creams sale increases don't cause a spike in murder rates, right? Since there are multiple studies on ultrasound use and primary hand use though, let's move forward for now.

What the results actually show is that for fetuses which are scanned before 19 weeks (all children in the studies were scanned at least once during gestation), among boys (not girls) there was a 'weak but statistically significant correlation' btwn one scan prior to 19 weeks and non-righthandedness. (I'm ambidextrous, so I would have counted in that bucket, not just my mom who is a lefty). The first studies were done in genetically homogenous groups and that was controlled for, the most recent was not, but the results across all three were similar and were done on machines in common use during the 80s.

This means the results do not apply to newer machines (we have no clue what current machines do--good or bad as they are stronger but may* offer 'quitter' frequencies). In addition, there's no good study on the effects of scan frequency that would support a more is worse mindset. [if anyone knows of any, please post as I would love to read!]

If the scan is CAUSAL to non-righthandedness, sure more would be bad, probably. But we don't have cause and effect, we have weak correlation. The problem with that is, why would some women (like me) tend to have scans before 19weeks lasting more than 3 minutes (the parameter for the study)? Because we have other health or age issues or concerns which could also be causal for non-right handedness. (We are back to ice cream and murder.) other things known to correlate to non-right handedness: genetics, sex (males are more likely to be left-handed scans or no), infertility meds (estrogen), position of fetus in last trimester. All of which might lead a woman to have additional scans.

Since there is no correlation between non-right handedness and mental deficiency (so glad my mom isn't reading this!), there is little cause to worry over this finding. If it came back with a 'strong positive correlation' for all children tested, not just one sex, it would be more concerning, but a weak correlation is just enough to justify a further study and not enough to say anything definitive. There are studies looking for other impacts, but they haven't found any correlation yet between us and negative impacts.

If my boy comes out a lefty, well...I'm not going to blame the scans I got every two weeks based on this research, I'm going to blame my mom and me for having that cross-brained genetic path. But maybe, he would have been slightly more likely to be a righty if I hadn't been infertile and needed IVF and been 35 all of Which led me to a cautious OB who scans me every time I go in. Who knows?

Atlast111 · December 2015

@HBamama2B. Agreed. I haven't had any time to look at studies re left handedness but I'm sure what you are saying is accurate. It's more the unknown aspect of scans that is a concern. I'm still baffled as to why women insist on extra scans when the medical advice on limiting them is clear! I get that they are impatient and want to buy pink/blue stuff but that doesn't seem to justify it in my mind.

Lilwatz · December 2015

Atlast111 said:

One more thing. The only thing I have ever seen about risk to the baby from more ultrasounds is a study that showed babies who had more ultrasounds had a higher probability of being left-handed. A risk I am willing to take. With our daughter, we started at a fertility clinic and had two ultrasounds there, then I was high risk so we had more ultrasounds than normal throughout the pregnancy at the high risk OB. Toward the end, I had GD and they were worried about her growth being too fast (it was not--she came out a tiny little 6lb 5 oz nugget) and even more ultrasounds. If it were dangerous I doubt that many would have happened.
It's not that they are dangerous as such. It's simply that there are no studies into the long term effects of overexposure. All health professionals recommend that you limit your scans to those that are necessary for health reasons because of this. I'm confused, if they have found a link between left handedness and scans surely this means the brain is being affected in some way.....and if this is the case who knows what else is being impacted.

I'v never heard that. My OB says it's fine. I think it's more the fear of the unknown. I'm not worried. I will say, no harm in avoiding if you are scared of the unknown. I opt out of the millimeter wave detection machines while flying pregnant because they haven't existed long enough for long term studies. Ultrasounds have.

lolonvive · December 2015

I just had a 12 week US for my NT scan so no 14 week scan for me, I would have liked an 18 week one since I had one at 8 and one at 12w, but we are waiting for the 20 week anatomy scan to find out the sex as well. We are really, really in no rush. All that matters is that our baby is born healthy, and if I find out that its a boy or girl at 14 or 20 weeks won't make it come any faster :-)

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Mrs. H

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