Harmony prenatal test - anyone know about it

[RTchoke]

today I am having a new kind of prenatal test called Harmony. It's non-invasive and seems to just be a new kind of blood test plus the regular nuchal scan but it's much more accurate than the traditional nuchal blood test. Apparently it's nearly as accurate as a CVS but without any risk.

I'm the only person I know who is having this test and nobody else seems to have heard of it let alone have been offered it. I just wondered if others have and knowledge of it and how accurate it is.

lmf Ive booked a 7w scan with fmc. It's the earliest they will do.

After that...the longer you wait the more you'll see, so I guess it's personal choice.

parachute ahh that's really frustrating. You must be upset. I think I would refuse the test. I don't think they can make you take it.

Harmony appears to only have false positives, not false negatives, so it sounds like you have a great result.
I guess nhs are being cautious as the test is not theirs and so not officially recognised.

FX you are able to decide without too much additional stress.

Hello everyone

I went to the FMC on Monday for a scan at 7+1. All good, heartbeat etc. As I am also 40 I am going for the Harmony test at 10 weeks followed by the nuchal at 12 weeks.

How do I dovetail it with the hospital? These will be the only private scans we do,all being well going forward I'll do the 20 week scan and such at Whipps Cross.

I don't see the point in doing the nuchal at the hops if we're having a superior one done at the FMC, plus it seems like a waste of NHS resources. I have also delayed my midwife booking in appt until after the 12 week scan as see no point if doing all that untilI know the pregnancy is viable (have had a couple of mcs).

Can I just give Whipps X my FMC scan details?

congratulations! must be so exciting to see a heartbeat!

was it internal or external ultrasound?

mine is booked next Friday when I think I'll be 7weeks. eek!

I had an external then an internal so she could get a clearer picture. Ugh. Worth it though.

Harmony False Positive is 1:1000
harmony False Negative 1:100 ie it misses 1%

It is widely available at about 20 centres throughout UK as Harmony, NIFTY, Panorama and Maternit21 but prices vary from about £300-£800. They are all 99pc detection and 1:1000 false positive

Hi JayKay

I'll let you know if I have any luck with the test as I had it done at FMC today and I've porked up hugely in the last year and have a high BMI so I have my concerns about it working. I did ask the sonographer and she said it does reduce the chance of success but didn't seem overly concerned. They refund you the cost of the test if it doesn't work after 2 goes anyway so still worth giving it a go.

By the way, I was trying to work out on this thread of the FMC tell you the gender through the test. I can confirm that they do if you ask and you have to pay a £10 fee to find out. I don't think they mention anything about it if you don't initiate it though.

thanks Delphi

I haven't booked it yet - I first have a reassurance scan next week. So when Im there in person I was going to see if they were concerned about my weight and the test.

It'd be great to hear how you get on.

Thanks!

Sorry - slightly off topic......

But can anyone who has had a fmc viability scan tell me where you got to take away any pictures?

Jaykay, I did. I walked away with three photos that were included in the price.

Interesting to read the thread, though I will admit to skimming through some of it. My sister had the harmony test at 10 weeks in the states, which I suppose is how she knew she was having a boy so early on.

I'm not sure if I'll book one, but in the event that I'm high risk after my NT scan next week I'll definitely consider the test before any invasive procedures!

I had photos from the 10 week scan too!

And yes, they definitely tell you the sex for a tenner. I was actually asked, but maybe not everyone is.

Hello, I am currently 9 weeks pregnant and this thread has been fascinating and very helpful reading.

Like a couple of previous posters, I am anxious to keep scans to a minimum. Ideally I wouldn't have any at all, but I very much want to have the Harmony test so I am resigned to having at least one.

I spoke to the FMC on the phone and ironically it seems as if it will be more expensive for me to have one scan than two! If I have the 10 week scan and the blood test and then the nuchal scan at 12 weeks I only have to pay for the Harmony test at £400. If I wait until 12 weeks or so, I can have just one scan before the test, but they will make me pay for it on top!

I tried to get the girl on the phone to explain this, but she was unclear. Why would I want a nuchal scan after the Harmony test if the Harmony results came back negative? She seemed to suggest it was more for the benefit of research being done at the clinic than for me.... but I don't think I fully understood.

Can anyone explain more clearly? If I only want one scan, should I wait till 12 weeks when things are a bit further along and more abnormalities could be seen?

Very grateful for all advice!

Tronbear - I think it's for their research.

Earlier in the year they were offering harmony for the price of the nuchal scan. So super super cheap. But at this time they were gathering stats around harmony. It only applied if you had the scans. And tests whilst in a particular one or two week window.

I believe they are now offering harmony and nuchal scan for the price of harmony as the next piece of their research. Again it is very specific dates (between 10w and 10w +6).

I was at fmc today for a viability scan.

I believe the scan on the first appointment is to check the pregnancy is viable and to check your dates align to their studies, they then take the bloods for the test. The second appointment you get your blood results and a nuchal scan. I think their study needs the nuchal scan....so they can record the variety of nuchal results.....and their harmony results.

I haven't been told this....it is what I am assuming from the information I have been given.

CrispyFB and anyone else who remembers my thread re the sex of the baby and how harmony had said one thing and another gender testing company had said the other...
Well we had a gender scan this afternoon and it would appear that it is indeed a little girl so Harmony were correct. I probably shouldn't have doubted it but the other company seemed convinced that we wee having a boy.
Anyway, I'll try and dig out my other thread to update for the benefit of anyone who brings it up whilst searching in the future.

Great news Worried! I had my 20 week scan on Thursday and yep.. she's still a girl too The doctor laughed when I said I wanted to see it for myself, and reiterated that Harmony is far more accurate than an ultrasound for sex. But he indulged me because he understood! She's all girl genetically and physically! And the anatomy scan was perfect as well.

One thing I've noticed is that the FMC is very supportive of Harmony and seem to treat it as conclusively as they would treat an amnio. There are already great research papers out there showing very very tiny chances of it being wrong, but of course the FMC is in the middle of doing yet more research on it (all those cheap Harmony tests earlier in the year!), so they'll have the most up to date knowledge. If they say it's pretty near infallible, even though I was 1 in 5 with my NT screening, I'll take it. It's one thing to be confident in a result when it's 1 in 150 at NT screening, it's another to be totally confident with a 1 in 5. And the FMC don't muck about if it's bad news or a risk of something after all.

The existing published research on the Labcorp website refers to 6000 women tested with an over 99.9% accuracy rate. Some of those 6000 women were those tested at the FMC/Kings College etc alongside their amnios at the time a few years back.

As an aside, I do get frustrated when people decline it because they've read somewhere that it's not as reliable as an amnio. Whilst technically true, it's down to splitting hairs. Tiny fractions of a percentage difference is not worth getting worked up over.. it's not like the difference between NT screening and amnio after all. But clearly they're either not being given the correct information or not being given enough information to make an educated decision and don't want to find out any more.

It's one thing to decline it because you can't afford it/can't find somewhere to do it/need to know quicker, but it's another because you don't think it's reliable when it actually is Then again if somebody wouldn't accept 1 in 10,000 at an NT screening as a "safe" risk then amnio probably is the only way forward which is fair enough. Guess I wouldn't care so much but when the alternative is a test that risks baby's life, and I have friends who have lost a baby thanks solely to that test (and seen plenty more on forums) and the fallout from that, it makes me feel very sad. Those losses can be prevented now. Hopefully as these tests get more widespread, there will be less doubt over them, I'm guessing a lot of it is because they are new news to many.

Oh I agree, I think it's a fantastic innovation and a real medical breakthrough. I didn't have mine done at the FMC and didn't have an nt scan at all as I was 10wks 3days. The sonographer said it was too early officially but she did check the nasal bone and blood flow through the heart and also said their didn't seem to be any unusual thickness of nuchal fold. I was then advised not to have a separate nt scan as they said at 42, my results would be high regardless and it would cause unnecessary worry. So, I was irrationally worried about not having had a real nt scan which I came to realise was silly as the harmony is so much more reliable.

I'm one of those women who because of my age this time may well have ended up opting for an amnio so I'm very grateful not to have needed to put my baby's life at risk. Glad your 20 wk scan went well! Hope we can both enjoy it now. For me it's really sinking in that I will finally be team pink! though team Blue has always been fab too!

Hey there. I got a call this morning to say my test hadn't worked so having to go back on Wednesday to try again. They will do my Nuchal scan at the same time so maybe that will provide some relief....on the other hand it might just worry me more.

I think that it is either my high BMI or the fact that there was a vanishing twin that is playing against me but we will see with the repeat test. The lady I spoke to on the phone said she had had 3 other women that had failed tests she had had to call today. I wonder whether they had high BMI as well.

Hi Delphi.

This is my concern too. Please keep us updated with how you get on. Do you know if you'll get a refund if you don't get a result?

I will get a partial refund, I think £250 of the £400 as they will still charge for the NT scan but I'd rather get it done privately as it's a better quality scan.

Fingers crossed it works the second time but not that hopeful.

Hopefully it'll work for you. Mine isn't booked in until December and Im already worried!

Hi ladies

I have my harmony test and early anomaly scan this Friday @ FMC
I had not great results from my NHS combined screening test so decided to have this as opposed to the amnio.
I'm 14 weeks today.
But after doing some research I'm a little confused as to what I'm having. They didn't tell me it would be 1 or 2 visits to the clinic..(I've noticed some of you ladies have had to go back) is the harmony just bloods or is it more than that? has anybody had the anomaly scan?

x

Hi Theateam1

For me it was 2 visits. They did a scan to ascertain that there was a healthy baby and then did the tests and then I will return for a NT scan and what were to be the results, this time it will be a NT scan and a repeat blood works.

For you it is likely to be different as you've already had an NT scan so I would think they will just do the anomoly scan at the first appointment and then give you the results over the phone/post when they get them