Early bleeding and Down's syndrome test

[Heath123er]

My husband and I have been asked by our midwife whether we would like the test where they measure the fluid in the baby's neck and the blood test at 12 weeks. I'm really confused about whether to have this. The midwife said I am considered low risk as I'm 29 and she weighed and measured me etc. My husband really does want us to have the test. I am concerned because I've read that early vaginal bleeding can affect your Down's syndrome test result! I bled for about 1 week when I was around 4 weeks. I had a scan at 5 and then 6 weeks and both showed a heartbeat. Just so confused and not sure what to do about this test! Any advice would be very much appreciated!

[Outnumbrd]

I just googled this as I'd not heard anything about it, and saw a study that suggested there's a slightly higher false positive result if there was early bleeding, however it's hard to measure how reliable the piece of research is.

I think whether or not to have the test depends on your next action if it came back a high risk. High risk in my area is 1:150 chance and you would then be offered an amniocentesis which carries a 1:100 chance of miscarriage but which will give you a definite result of Downs or not. Consider though that it will not tell you where on the Downs spectrum the baby is.

[CrispyFB]

The bleeding needs to be fairly close to when you have the blood draw. I'm not sure of the exact amount but I'm pretty sure that 8 weeks later would not have any effect at all. It's more like a week or so.

There's not always a correlation, it's just an occasional explanation for people who have unnaturally high bHCG when everything else looks fine.

If you are really worried, look into the Harmony/NIFTY/Panorama blood test which is non-invasive - just a sample of your blood at 10 weeks plus. It's mostly only available privately right now but it is incredibly accurate and should give you the reassurance you need.

[Heath123er]

Thank you so much to you both for taking the time to reply! I've looked into it and the 'This Is My' private clinic in Leeds do the Nifty non-invasive procedure which is 99.9% accurate. It's £295 but the fact that there's no risk of miscarriage makes it absolutely worth it in my eyes! Thanks also for your reply re the bleeding and whether this affects the test. I feel a lot better about that now too. It can get scary when you read so many different things and you don't know what is accurate and what isn't!

[CrispyFB]

You're welcome! I hope you get great results.. I never really feel very confident at all with a pregnancy until the chromosomal risks have come through!

I had very high bHCG which I was told was most likely caused by recent bleeding - combined with a borderline nuchal my risk was 1 in 5. I had the Harmony test done and baby came back low risk. The clinic that did the test (Fetal Medicine Centre in London) are pioneers in research in this area and they told me I could trust the result - NIFTY is the same sort of test. That's good enough for me - so no amnio So glad these tests are now available at zero risk to the baby.

[Heath123er]

I weft for a reassurance scan yesterday as I've been struggling to relax since the early bleeding. I found out baby died at around 6 and a half weeks. Absolutely heart broken. Got to go into hospital next week so they can speed up the process of it coming out. They won't do surgery to remove it as they say I'm not far enough on and they could do some damage to my uterus. Just feel numb at the moment!

[CrispyFB]

Oh no, I am so so sorry That must have been such a horrible shock even though you'd been anxious.

I'm surprised they won't give you the surgical option - five weeks maybe, but not six weeks - there should be enough there by that point. Both of my ERPCs were a bit later, 8w2d and 9w2d but I was measuring much much smaller than that - around six weeks in fact with the 9w2d one.

Can you get a second opinion? If you have private health insurance, this is also something you can claim for. My last ERPC I went private as the NHS was being a bit crap for other reasons, and everything was covered.

Unless of course you're happy with the pill option! Just be aware that sometimes it ends up as an ERPC anyway.

Thinking of you. It is incredibly bad luck to have a loss after seeing a heartbeat.

[Mollymou1112]

I'm really sorry about your news. Thinking of you and your husband at this time :-(

[Heath123er]

Thank you for your kind words. Unfortunately I don't have private medical insurance. I'm not sure why they won't do the surgery. I've got an appointment at the hospital tomorrow, so I'm going to ask about it, because I have also read online that the surgical option should be available. I've been feeling so down since finding out the bad news. Especially because I saw the heartbeat at 6 weeks. I was hoping the scan last week would just give me the reassurance I needed to try and chill out a bit! I just keep thinking, what if I don't catch on again!? And if I do, I will be a nervous wreck, even more than I was this time! I know so many women go through this and quite often more than once! It has surprised me that the NHS have offered no emotional support as yet. I've been told all the facts, but because they see this all the time, I guess it just isn't a big deal for them! Thanks again for all of your comments.

[CrispyFB]

Contact the Miscarriage Association as they're lovely, and can give you emotional support as well as practical advice.

You will get pregnant again - if you can manage it once then it would be extremely rare for you to not manage it in the future.

I'm so sorry you are going through this. Pregnancy is stressful enough anyway, but when (when) you next conceive you will probably find it even harder going than usual. Losing a baby leaves its mark forever . Having said that, with "just" (as if) the one loss, your odds of success with your next pregnancy are pretty much the same as if you had never had any losses. It's only after three in a row that things start to look worrying, and that's 1% of people.

My first pregnancy was a loss at 8 weeks, then I had DC1 a few months later. I was crazy nervous the whole time but it was fine in the end.

Definitely advocate for the surgical option if it's what you want. I personally prefer it - I could not ever face medical management.

Thinking of you.