First trimester screening anyone?

LoganLacey · January 2016

Im doing an optional first trimester screening this week, its a blood test and ultrasound for nuchal transparency to know if there may be a chance of downsyndrome (which would lead to amniocentesis testing).

Will you share your experience with this test? Ive learned theres different types of first trimester screening and some let you learn the gender (I dont think mine will but im just happy to take it for some extra peace of mind and looking forward to another ultrasound)

PugsandKisses · January 2016

Well, you pretty much explained it.
They look at the baby over all and they measure the thickness of the neck. With that # and th lab work they give you a ratio of likelihood of DS and other chromosome issues. Ther are not false positives or negatives, since it is all 1/XYZ risk.

tgortney · January 2016

I had both done, the NT scan with blood work and the NIPT (cell free DNA test). The latter told me my baby's sex. I got the results for my NIPT faster because the NT scan had to be done with 2 different bloodwork drawings for 1st and 2nd trimester.

Mind you, most insurance will cover the NT scan and bloodwork for low risk mothers (which I am) but will not cover the NIPT unless there's a medical reason (AMA, family history etc). Therefore, most people who are having the NIPT usually pay out of pocket if they really wanted it done for peace of mind (which I did).

I did the Verifi test through progenity, which was the best option out of all the other companies who offer it. Check out their peace of mind program on their website. Give them a call and ask. It's well worth it to me.

Note though, the NIPT is a serious test and not just for finding out the sex of the baby earlier than your AS scan. I did it because I'm a paranoid FTM

luckily, both tests came back negative for my little guy!

BrightenMySky · January 2016

I am doing the NT bw and scan in a few weeks. A little put off that my OB did not really present it as optional. I think it's likely we would choose to do it, but it was not presented as our choice at all.

Lynna2401 · January 2016

I am having mine done tomorrow. They called it "Sequential Screening".

delujm0 · January 2016

I had the NT scan + sequential screen. My OB office also does it for everyone - though i suppose you could opt out if you wanted to. If my insurance would have covered the NIPT i would have done that too.

I am of the opinion that the more information you have the better. A lot of women come on here and say they skipped this testing because it "wouldn't change anything" and by that they mean that they wouldn't abort a terminal baby. That isn't the only reason to do this testing. For one, if your baby has something like Down Syndrome, which would mean that it would survive birth and likely live a full life, you would probably want as much time as possible to plan for that - there are various therapy options, medical interventions, insurance questions, etc that would need to be looked into, and the earlier you do that, the better. Also, if your baby does have a terminal disorder, you would probably at least want to know that ASAP. If you had trisomy 13 or something, and had a late stage miscarriage without knowing why or planning ahead for it to happen, that would be very hard to process, i'd think.

Most of the disorders scanned for in the NT/sequential would also be found in the anatomy scan around 20 weeks. However, if you wanted to terminate your pregnancy as a result of a terminal outcome, that is an easier process earlier on in the pregnancy. Also, as i said above, if you miscarried between the NT and Anatomy scans, you'd probably want to know why it was happening if at all possible. These are the reasons that i did it. Also, an extra ultrasound is kind of fun. I had a dating scan at 8 weeks but the baby looked like a gummy bear...by 12 weeks she looked like an actual baby, which was really cool.

LoganLacey · January 2016

Yeah I heard its optional and theres a second trimester "quad"(?) test that is not optional if you dont take the first trimester screen.

LoganLacey · January 2016

Thanks so much for sharing

amandam925 · January 2016

@delujm0 I agree with you, and I just wanted to add that some chromosomal abnormalities come with complications at birth and that can be very scary. (Example: 50% of Downs babies have heart defects at birth and a smaller percentage are born with intestinal blockages that require surgeries shortly after birth.)

I wouldn't know this, but my cousin went through it. She loves her son so much, but finding out about the Downs, having him rushed off for multiple surgeries, not being able to bring him home for weeks all at once was extremely difficult, particularly on top of being physically/emotionally exhausted from giving birth.

kyraaD · January 2016

PugsandKisses said:
Well, you pretty much explained it.
They look at the baby over all and they measure the thickness of the neck. With that # and th lab work they give you a ratio of likelihood of DS and other chromosome issues. Ther are not false positives or negatives, since it is all 1/XYZ risk.

this. just the regular NT scan (which is what you're doing) wont tell you the sex of your baby. i think only the NIPT test does that, which is a DNA test for more high risk morhers. just the chances of it having DS & other chromosomal disorders.

my experience was good. i got my blood test, got my US, & was told my LO was very low risk for all chromosomal disorders. & it was nice getting to see him for the first time (:

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