Hand holding while waiting for Harmony test results

[Mslad]

Just seeing if anyone out there is waiting for their harmony results? I had my test last Thursday and time seems to have stopped since then. Both my normal scan, and harmony scan seemed perfect, they were very thorough when testing, nt was very low, everything else functioning well, it's my low ppap-a blood test that is putting me at high risk of DS. Some days I feel positive and others I'm overwhelmed with worry. My job involves a lot of independent research/writing work, so I'm well behind on deadlines while I trawl through the internet for some hope.

Anyone else out there going through this agonizing wait?

xxx

Just a word of caution that if you have a "robust placenta" it won't actually leak enough DNA into the blood sample for the test to work. You need 5% "Foetal fraction" and I had 3% TWICE!

Thankfully the company gave us most of our money back (save the cost of a std sonography session).

On plus side "robust placenta" for a 40+ yr old is a very good sign :)

Yay - congratulations turquoise! What a massive relief for you. I hope you manage a small celebration while you're at work (cake? hot chocolate?) and that you can go crazy with a bottle of Schloer this evening. And I agree, boys rock .
Wishing you all the best for a less eventful pregnancy from here on. x

I agree that it can't be that common for women to find themselves screened as high risk, and that people admitting to anyone in rl that they've had a termination for medical reasons must be very very rare. That said, if the NHS is now doing trials of harmony to anyone with a risk of higher than 1:1000, presumably a lot more women will be going through this agonising wait.

I was reluctant even to tell our parents at first (as I didn't know how my inlaws would react if the news was bad and we decided to terminate) but DH assured me they would be very understanding, not least as he thinks they had a termination for some reason after he and his brother were born. I'm just hoping I've not tempted fate by telling a few of my antenatal group friends because tbh if I knew for sure the baby had DS and we were terminating I wouldn't have shared it with them.

DH (who's always been a bit more of a hippy than me) always goes on about there being positive energy in the universe, and would say turquoise's good news is positive energy for us all. At the very least it hopefully makes us feel a bit more optimistic about our own outlooks.

pinky, that's interesting about 'robust placenta' - I knew the test didn't always work, but didn't know the reasons why. What did you end up doing/are you going to do?

turquoise I forgot you were at work today, so so glad you had such good news.. Really praying the rest of us get the same results

Best wishes to all of you waiting for results.

I had my scan at Kings and was given the Harmony test because my risk of Downs was 1,300 or so. They explained before that even came back that the background risk because of my age (38) would be high enough that I would fall into the referral criteria, which was less than 2,000. They explained that they are gradually reducing the referral point (the following week it went down to 1,000) to find the point when you are referring the right women. Hopefully this means that thousands of women won't be suffering this wait on the very off chance of a positive result.

It must be a very long wait indeed so I hope the days speed by and all is well.

girasol

We started with the panorama test at around 11w but it took right to 13w6d to get it all sorted.

We ended up getting private test done which came back same day with blood test results - all good.

(We'd been warned our Nhs hospital was a nightmare for results and we were just about to go on holiday.)

After the panorama test didn't work, we just had the NHS blood test & scan booked which was an absolute shambles and left me very sore from
being prodded so hard in an attempt to get baby to move position after 3 scans and being almost at end of test window! We still haven't "officially" got the Nhs results as the admin at our hospital is appalling.

Now 28w and being kicked all over the place inside by a very active future mischief maker.

All these differently named tests! I didn't realise there were any where you could get same day results - what kind of test was that pinky? Still considering my options if I end up getting a 'non-result' after a 2 week wait with harmony. I'll be nearly 15 weeks then so won't have the time or the mental reserves to repeat the test and wait another two weeks. We're assuming we'd go down the amnio route but I think that would take the best part of a week to book in then get the results, so if there is a quicker way I'd definitely be interested to know.

Do you mind me asking which NHS hospital you were at (pm me if you'd prefer, but obviously don't worry if you'd rather not say). Anyway, really pleased it worked out for you in the end, and that you're almost on the home stretch with your pregnancy now.

Three, I got a similar talk during my scan that my Dr thought because of my age (37) I was likely to come back as higher risk, but I was still hoping/expecting that my odds would get better than those based on my age alone, whereas in fact they got quite a bit worse.

I do think there needs to be a systematic change to how high risk is defined/explained to pregnant mothers, and that much more can and should be done to reassure women whose odds are really quite long.

Has anyone else got their results yet? Hoping to hear some more good news!

Not yet (for me) chook It'll be 2 weeks since my test tomorrow. I think I'm going to call them tomorrow as I'm too impatient. How long ago was your test? How are you holding up?

hopefully they will call you later today or tomorrow morning and put you out of this misery Mslad... this wait is just awful, I keep replaying all the awful sinarios that will come with bad news, My results wont be in until next week- next Thursday is my 14days up so I am praying I hear before then as I am not sure I can cope with another week of this, its just a crappy place to be right now as I am sure you all know to well!

Our genetic counsellor said the waiting time was 7-10 working days but in practice the lab was very busy so it was taking the full 10. I had my test last Tues and she was pretty confident that the results would come in next Wednesday afternoon. Not sure if everything is being sent to the same lab or if some places are managing to turn it around much more quickly.
Shouldn't be much longer for you Mslad either way.

Well I was told it could be up to 15 working days, which would mean next Wednesday If it goes that long I think I might get fired for such low productivity levels! I haven't actually played out the next steps if it's bad news, I can't bear too, it's like there's a wall at next Wednesday and I can't see anything , good or bad after that (hence letting work, and other stuff completely slide).

Anybody found any good distraction tips? Baking helps relax my mind...but it's also means that I now look about 6 months pregnant!

xx

Mslad my only distraction is my dd, and although it is helping having to keep a normal routine for her sake after she goes to bed my mind wonders which is a bad thing!

my specialist midwife who did the Harmony test told us it was a 10-14 day wait not working days as the lab in California work weekends, she also said most results do come back before the 14 days are up but we all seem to have been told something different, but hopefully by the end of next week we should all know one way or another.

It sounds like the tests are being done by different labs, so you can go only on what you've been personally told about waiting times. I was told my samples were being sent to a UK lab (I suspect they don't work weekends!), and that while they had sometimes been also sending them to the US to check the tests were being done consistently that wasn't the case at the moment.

We're moving house tomorrow so thankfully that's keeping me fairly occupied (slash even more stressed). Probably a bit extreme to recommend moving house just as a means of distraction though! That said, if anyone wants to take their minds of it by coming and unpacking boxes in Hertfordshire, just say the word
(sorry, probably not the time for ropey humour....)

There's always time for ropey humour girasol I know moving house can be very stressful, but some manual work that doesn't require me to engage my brain sounds quite tempting right now.

Another one who would quite happily help you move girasol would take my mind off things nicely!

I'm moving in April and am hopefully due in May so that will be a stupidly stressful month or so!

Thinking of you girls xx

Fabulous news turquoise x

Good luck to everyone else waiting for results, it's a very stressful time x

My results are being sent to GOSH and I was told 7-10 working days so next Tues I think.

I got my results today- great news, I got the all clear. They didn't give me revised odds, just said my test was clear for the three syndromes.

I called them due to my impatience and they had the results, which is kind of annoying considering I was on complete phone watch and thought they would call as soon as I had them, but I'm not complaining as they're clear, and they probably had more important things to worry about once they saw it was good news.

I'm thinking of everyone who's still waiting, I know just how awful it is, hoping your time passes quickly for you and you get your good news soon.
xxx

Mslad - lovely news I hope everyone else waiting gets good news too x

mslad massive congrats, lovely news must be such a relief... Relax now and enjoy your pregnancy

That's fabulous, MsLad. What a relief.

And Turqoise too!

Thanks guys, it does feel like a huge relief. It was nice to wake up this morning not consumed with worry.

Hope you all are ok, and manage to find plenty of distractions for the weekend.

fingers crossed for everyone
xx

Great news mslad xx did you find out the sex? X