Echogenic bowel

[mrsof20118]

The anomaly scan was fine apart from them picking up an echogenic bowel. I've had the non invasive test done already which came back low risk for the three trimoses but I'm now worried sick whilst waiting for a fetal medicine appointment for a referral for further checks.

Does anybody have any experience of echogenic bowel?

Hi,

Not sure if I’m writing in the correct part I haven’t written a post before. How did the rest of your pregnancy go @mrsof20118?

My 20 week anomaly scan was fine but when I went for a growth scan at 33 weeks an Echogenic bowel was picked up. We were then referred to FMU specialist 10 days later who confirmed the presence of the Echogenic bowel and suggested an amniocentesis for Downs, Edwards and Patau syndrome plus other chromosome abnormalities and blood tests to see if I have CMV infection/Toxoplasmosis and to see if me and my partner are CF carriers. 3 days after the amnio the results came back clear for DS, Edwards and Patau and also for the two infections. Then a week later it came back that baby was at least a carrier for CF which has been picked up but couldn’t confirm if just a carrier or if he actually had it without mine and partners bloods back.

After a very long three week wait for CF results it has come back that partner is a carrier but I am not BUT they do not test for all CF mutations as there are so many so they cannot completely rule out CF and I just have to wait and see now once he is here. Being induced in the next two weeks due to Cholestasis (unrelated to Echogenic bowel) and I cannot feel positive at all. Already have one daughter 4 years old who is completely healthy.
The FM consultant has been very negative throughout and said he still feels it is CF.

Wondered if anyone had experienced anything similar? It could be that baby needs some help once here due to blockage, or he could poo straight away or it could be CF. It’s been a horrible month and to still not know after all this testing is devastating. It has ruined the last month of my pregnancy, especially after having severe hyperemesis at the beginning until 5 months and being in and out of hospital needing IVs for dehydration.

Thank you for your time and for reading my essay!! X

I don't have experience of echogenic bowel, but I do have a child with cf. If you're on Facebook, I'd suggest joining one of the groups there (like CF Parents Group) and asking for experiences there. Most groups won't mind that you don't have a diagnosis yet, and you can always leave if it turns out not to be cf. I'm not saying saying it is cf, btw, just thinking that you're more likely to find someone who's been through this on a more specific group.

Thank you, I will have a look into it

How did things go? I have a similar story but at the point I’m waiting for amnio results

Hi, all was fine. My son (Freddie) was born 8 weeks ago completely healthy and pood within a few hours of being born with no blockage. Nobody really knows why the bowel was showing Echogenic and it stayed throughout until he was born!
I know how hard it is waiting for the results and not much anyone says makes you feel any better but I’ve since been told that the majority of cases of Echogenic bowel it turns out to be nothing. Xx

In my case everything was fine. Caused by infection like chicken pox.