Do previous high risk pgs mean you will definitely be high risk next time?

[Mamafoof]

I have two DC. I had DC1 at 29 (28 at time of scan). All was fine at scan except for my bloods - had high hcg and risk was 1:300 which did unnerve me but thankfully, all was fine. I had DC2 at 31 (30 at time of scan). Again, all fine with scan, except for horrendous bloodwork - my hcg was 5.8 x normal and Papp A was a little low. My result was reduced to 1:107. My hospital only offers amnios for 1:100 or higher but I was offered more growth scans as a precaution. I know that in most other hospitals, I would have been offered an amnio and considered high risk. Thankfully all was fine again.

However, I was absolutely petrified during pregnancy with DC2. It was awful and I was stressed. Clearly, I tend to get high HCG with pregnancies. I should mention that a month before I conceived DC2, I had an early miscarraige so wonder whether this had an effect on my results?

Anyway, we are thinking about DC3 but one of the MAIN reasons not to is that I am so scared that my results are going to be even higher. If I have high hcg plus will be older (hope to conceive when I am 34ish), then I am bound to have v high results? I am not sure I can go through the trauma of the amnio and worry. Maybe I should be happy with the two healthy children I have..?

Has anyone had experience of high risk followed by low risk pregnancies? In particular, v high hcg followed by low hcg in subsequent pregnancies?

Thanks

You dont have to have the test. It is clearly meaningless in your case anyway. The risk at 34 is still pretty low I didnt have screening in either of my pregnancies. I had my second at 34 no one turned a hair.

could you afford a private scan? they look for other markers and people often find their odds are significantly reduced when they are borderline high risk on the nhs.

there was a lady on here recently who did just that (as she had bad bloods) and her odds she was given were so much better.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_tests_choices/1541196-Downs-test-US-fine-but-bloods-indicate-high-risk

here you go read this!

Great thanks both! I would go for private scan but am so puzzled by why odds can differ greatly between the two. Wish NHS would sort out the scan / nuchal test. It can throw so many false positives and causes so much stress

I had my risk results the other way around, so my DS1 had a very very low risk result (1:8000) and my DS2 had a very very high risk result (1:15). So, both boys, same father, born only 2 years apart, and yet such a vast difference in results. HCG was high and pappa was very low with DS2.

So, either you do naturally produce a lot of HCG (so your results are consistenly a variant on the norm and do not indicate anything else) in which case I wouldn't put too much emphasis on a nuchal test result (or just don't have the test at all, you don't have to), or the last two results were both flukes and the next result will be low risk.

I do get why you don't want to have to go through it all again. I don't think we want a DC3 but having been through a high risk result and a CVS (and all the associated worry) with DS2 that would make me very anxious about reliving it and is one (of many) factors against.

I've just had the opposite - my results with ds1 were 1:2 and we went for amino. He was fine - a minor heart abnormality which is only a variant of normal
. I'm pg again now as had my combined last week - I was terrified. Results came back on fri as 1:17751.

I was baffled as to how they can be so different - I was fully prepared for another high result. The sonographer who scanned me this time is a mw too and I asked her if it was likely to be high again. She said not necessarily as every pregnancy is totally different - even if my body reacted one way last time, doesn't mean it will again.

I'm relieved, I have to say. DH thinks it means we're having a girl this time.

I am not sure that it is previous high risk results that affect your risk in subsequent pregnancies but actual outcomes eg at my second pregnancy my background risk for down syndrome (trisomy 21) was automatically 1:95 because I had already had a trisomy 21 pregnancy. Your background risk does increase with age but every pregnancy is different, so I'm told.

On the private scan thought, have a look at the thread on the Harmony test which is offered at the FMC in London and also somewhere in Cardiff I think. I too am sceptical and terrified of the tests/ ratios but for different reasons. I was he 1 in 190000. When I subsequently fell pregnant I went for a private scan at the FMC and they were amazing- much more detailed and looked at a number of soft markers, and I amazingly decided that I was reassured without the need for the CVS I was resigned to probably having.

If I get pregnant again I shall be heading straight to the FMC to have their scan & the new Harmony test (which tests Fetal DNA in the mother's blood and is more accurate than the combined Nuchal test).

With regards to HCG levels, I have heard that some people do produce higher levels in all their pregnancies

Good luck x

Ps the odds given by the FMC in their private scans are different to the NHS because they take into account more factors and soft markers e.g. Blood flow in the liver etc. It should therefore be more accurate.