CVS or Amniocentesis, which one to go with?

[OhTheDrama]

I am 8 weeks pregnant with DC3. My other DC's and myself have a genetic condition, this baby has a 50% chance of having it. I have been told that both a CVS or an amnio would detect it. My geneticist seems to be very favourable towards the amnio and quite negative towards the CVS, despite him saying the CVS would be slightly more accurate. He feels the risk factors with the amnio are negligible compared to the CVS. I have read up on the CVS and feel that while the risk is slightly higher, this would be my preferred option.

Anybody have any views on this or had these tests, what are your experiences?

In the USA the doctors actually advertise their m/c rate following cVS or amnio, would help you make the decision. Sounds like your man doesn't like his own CVS rate of m/c.

In your case, such high odds (so sorry ), I'd want CVS to get certainty that much sooner. I have had amnio and I paid £700 to get it done by a practitioner with published low rates, but maybe that was OTT.

Hello, I had a CVS last Monday for a similar reason my 2 year old has a genetic condition where we had a 1 in 4 chance of baby being effected.

It wasn't a nice experience but I went with it because its done earlier and had my baby been effected we wouldn't of gone ahead with the pregnancy.

The baby is completely unaffected not even a carrier. I feel happy with my decision to have the test although I'm not sure I could put myself through it again.

I agree its not a nice procedure but a cvs means you may get answers earlier than you would with an amnio. I was really worried about the miscarriage risk associated with having a cvs and had a lengthy conversation with our geneticist who said in her opinion the miscarriage stats were way off (about 1-500 as opposed to 1/2-100). In future pregnancies we'll have to go down the cvs route again. Hoping by then we'll have a bit of money saved and be able to afford harmony testing instead. Good luck

from what the foetal medicine team told us; CVS does have marginally higher risk of miscarriage than the amnio but ultimately this is a decision you have to make for you and your family.

I would rather know sooner rather later and have been told that I could have the results as late as 19 weeks with an amnio. I am in NI so cannot TFMR nor would I want to as in most cases it is a very livable condition. In 5% of cases it can result in the baby's kidneys not developing but I will cross that bridge when we come to it. I will be under the fetal medicine team in Belfast and have heard very good things about them. Obviously I will need to speak to the consultant but my mind is set on the CVS.

Do you know where your placenta is? Anterior or posterior? This may be written on your 12 week scan notes.

A CVS takes placental cells so if your placenta is anterior then that makes it less risky (or so I was told), as it's easily accessible through your abdomen. Whereas if it's posterior a CVS would involve the needle having to go further through the amniotic sac to access the placenta. So that might swing you towards an amnio.

My understanding is that while CVS has a marginally higher mc rate than amnio, that might just be due to the fact that it's carried out earlier and earlier mcs are more common (in other words some early miscarriages may get attributed to the CVS when in fact they were going to happen anyway).

It might be worth asking about the Harmony and NIFTY blood tests - available privately - these are mainly used to test for Downs/Edwards/Patau but I wonder if they may be able to look for other genetic syndromes too? May not be that advanced yet though...

I would ask though, if you would not TFMR, why take the risk of a CVS or amnio at all? Is there any benefit to the baby in you finding out early?

Hi all.

Last Wednesday I got given the worst news of my life. This is my first pregnancy and they detected NT at over 3.5mm. The ultrasound scan at 13weeks 5 days showed the baby had a flat face, couldn't see nose. They told me the baby will not survive and it looks worse than Down syndrome. I have been asked to come in the next two weeks for an amnio test to confirm what is going on. Anyone experienced the same thing? Any advice will be very helpful. I am so confused right now and have lost my appetite completely. Thanks

OP, if no question of termination, I would def wait for the amnio (and I say this as someone who posted on another thread saying I'd go for CVS in order to get earlier results - but that was in my case, with a 50/50 risk where an affected child would not survive to term).
Largely because I could not live with it if the miscarriage materialised: I was also advised however that the risk at a London hospital where CVS was routine was much lower.

Thanks for all your views. Just to clear up why I want the test, this is because DC2 has a disability caused by this condition which wasn't picked up initially and that has caused some educational and developmental issues because we got a fairly late diagnosis. We want to know for definite before baby is here so that we can be more assertive this time around, so that we can push for certain tests and referrals that we were denied due to medical professionals not deeming them necessary due to DD not having the "classic symptoms". I feel her care has been in some ways a bit of a shambles, although the support that we are getting now is second to none.

I am very scared right now and wavering whether to have any tests at all but in the back of mind I feel that we need to know in order to get the best for our child from the beginning this time. I will go with an open mind and see what the consultant advises.

Hope26 no experience but I just wanted to say that I'm thinking of you and hope the amnio gives you some answers

Thank you I will keep everyone updated on the results x