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Antenatal tests

CVS test

15 replies

beansbananas · 25/10/2016 14:57

Hi I was hoping for some advice about CVS tests. I am currently 11 weeks pregnant. My previous pregnancy sadly ended at 16 weeks due to down syndrome. I have been told I'm at a slightly increased risk because my first pregnancy resulted in a downs baby. As a consequence the NHS have offered a cvs test at 12 weeks. Last time I went private and paid for a harmony test followed by the amnio test to confirm the diagnosis from my blood test. Basically I'm in two minds what to do. Part of me wants to know conclusively either way, and so despite the risks wants to proceed with the cvs test. The other part of me feels like I don't want to put the baby at risk unnecessarily, but as the NHS tests are less accurate I guess I'd have to go through the private hospital again. Has anyone else been in a similar situation? What did you do? I'm 33 and the previous diagnosis was not genetic related. It was such a traumatic experience last time, and advice would be really appreciated. Thank you.

OP posts:

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SarahMOs · 25/10/2016 20:37

I can't really advise you what to do but we had the CVS earlier this month at the Fetal Medicine Centre at Kings College. Have they given you a risk factor for this pregnancy? A combination of my blood results and the NT measurement gave me a risk of 1:85 which was more than th risk of MC due to the procedure. Our results came back clear. The CVS is a diagnostic test whereas the Harmony/NIPT are screenings although highly accurate or so I have read. Private or NHS, the CVS will be the same, a diagnostic test of any chromosomal issues they are able to test for.

YorkieDorkie · 25/10/2016 20:45

Hi OP, I had a CVS test and although it wasn't pleasant, I was definitely in safe hands and I didn't worry about any risk to the baby. The 1% miscarriage rate is an average over the country. My hospital's own rate was more like 0.1%. As the other poster was asking... do you know your risk factor?

hopsalong · 25/10/2016 23:03

Assuming you can afford it again, I would definitely get the Harmony test. (Just had my second one last week and results only take 3-4 working days now.) Your risk may be elevated from baseline because of a previous pregnancy with DS, but it is still overwhelmingly likely that you AREN'T carrying a baby with any abnormalities, and so for me a risk of 0.5% or 1% of miscarriage seems a bad idea, when the chance of the baby having DS is I assume still much less than that! Obviously it would be different if you had had bad bloods at 12 weeks and soft markers etc on the Nuchal scan, but other than a slight increase in risk from the previous pregnancy I think you should be very hopeful everything is fine this time (and definitely not put yourself through extra stress of CVS). If Harmony result should come back as a positive, why not do it then? Sending positive vibes!

beansbananas · 26/10/2016 07:15

Thank you all for sharing your experiences. We have decided to have the scan and blood test at the NHS, and if there are any raised risks from theses tests, we will go back to the fetal medical centre for the thorough harmony test and if needed the cvs. We have an increased risk already because of the previous pregnancy, but as it stands we do not know anymore. So we've decided to do the exploratory tests before having the more invasive procedures.

OP posts:

littleem89 · 02/11/2016 20:59

Hi. I've just had my 12 week scan and have been offered a CVS test as my husband has a translocation in his chromosome and there is a chance our baby could have unbalanced chromosome (although could be normal or have the translocation which is classed as normal). I'm not sure whether to have the test or not? My husbands translocation is between 2 and 3 so I don't think the harmony test covers this. Has anyone come across this before? Any help would be gratefully received!

Yika · 02/11/2016 21:04

I'm in a different country and was automatically offered the CVS because of my age (43), no specific risk was otherwise identified. Little bit nerveracking but all went fine and I was glad to have done it. Had to have a day's bed rest afterwards as I recall.

littleem89 · 02/11/2016 21:09

Thank you Yika. Yes they have advised 48 hours rest afterwards. I'm concerned about the risk of miscarriage which is putting me off. It's such a hard decision!

SarahOoo · 02/11/2016 21:17

I commented above regarding our CVS. Just wanted to say I'm sorry I can't help with any advice on this for you as I'm not sure what translocation is. I will have a Google now though!

littleem89 · 02/11/2016 21:20

Haha it's all very complicated and was only found out as my husband was quite short and his parents were worried when he was younger! Without that we would have been none the wiser! But obviously we do know and the hospital has made us more worried then we probably need to be!

Yika · 02/11/2016 21:26

Yes but the risk of miscarriage as a direct result remains very small still. There is also a risk from amniocentesis, and with the CVS you have the advantage of knowing the results considerably earlier.

SarahOoo · 02/11/2016 21:26

Hi again littleem89 so I have had a read up on this now. However I can only go on what I would do now I've been through the CVS. Firstly did they say everything else looked good? Personally I was very relieved we had the tests to know what we would be dealing with and also the relief after we had the all clear and I would do it again if advised to as we were.

littleem89 · 02/11/2016 21:36

Yeh everything else looked fine however with this translocation thing I've been told I'm at higher risk of a miscarriage at any point in my pregnancy. I'm quite a worrier so as you say having the relief that hopefully everything will be ok maybe the answer as to whether we should go ahead with the test or not. Thank you for your help.

beansbananas · 02/11/2016 22:01

Do you know what the odds are for having the condition? When I had an amnio for downs in my previous pregnancy we were given a 1:5 so to us it was clear that it was worth the risk. I guess the other way to look at it, is would it make a difference? I suspect in your situation I would want to know, but it's never an easy decision. What does your husband think?

OP posts:

SarahOoo · 02/11/2016 22:02

We didn't really hesitate with saying yes to the CVS (even though we didn't realise about Harmony which they also did at the same time and could have done that alone which isn't invasive but is a screening test not a diagnostic test like the CVS). I rested for a good 24 hours after and did go out for lunch the next day for my sanity to talk with my mum. I was worried about miscarriage of course (like way more trips to the loo to check!).

littleem89 · 02/11/2016 22:08

Unfortunately we don't have any odds to go by. My husband obviously says it's my choice but he's worried about me worrying throughout the pregnancy whereas if we knew the results we could perhaps concentrate on that whereas at the moment we could be worrying about nothing.

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