First time pregnancy at 36

[penguin7]

I have my 12 week dating scan on Tues and I've opted for the combined tests. First pregnancy and I'm 36 years of age. I'm so nervous and worrying and I've started to think with me being 36 will I get 'high' chance results and be called for further testing for DS and Edwards etc?
So nervous and and anxious, any help or advice would be appreciated.

[nextweek]

Hi, I'm 36 (will be 37 by time of due date) and recently had my screening test. It came back as high risk for Downs Syndrome and low risk for Edwards and Panasonic. We did the NIPT test and it came back all low risk. Age does affect the screening test 'scores' because its based on averages but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be high risk, it also takes into account your bloods and NT measurement.

[Liveforholidays]

Hi, I was 39 at time of 12 week scan and I had a high chance of DS. I had no idea that being older could affect these scores so much.. If I'd have known this before hand I would have gone straight for NIPT and saved myself so much anxiety.

[Jsh125]

I was 36 with my second pregnancy & mine all came back as low risk in the thousands, actually they were even lower risk than with my first when I was 34.

Age definitely is a factor in your results but still very possible (& highly likely) to get a low risk result but the worrying is awful isn't it.

Good luck for Tuesday & hope all goes well for you

[SarahD19]

Hey age can impact the calculations as the 12 week check looks at blood serum levels (HCG and Papp-A), Nuchal fold and also consider age in the assessment of risk.

NIPT is also a screening test, although is considerably more accurate when used in context - such as the above screening tools alongside. This is because it can also bring about a lot of false positives. For instance for the general population it will predict accurately in 80% of cases for Downs Syndrome, but will only positively predict in 37% of cases with Edwards Syndrome.

If you have a negative NIPT test/all clear, this is likely to be accurate however (it is false positives which are the biggest concern).

It is worth bearing in mind that false positives can bring about weeks, sometimes months of anxiety that cannot be resolved prenatally. So it depends on what your motivation for the test is and how you feel about the possibility of being in the minority for whom screening tests are not helpful.