Harmony test INCONCLUSIVE

[firsttimemumEJ]

Hi so after what felt like forever I had a phone call to say my harmony test was inconclusive. I was 12+5 when I had bloods drawn for this.

I have a redraw on Saturday I'll be 14+4.

My BMI is quite high at 35.
Has anyone else had inconclusive results? How long did the redraw results take to come back? I'm so upset and fed up of waiting

When I went for a scan with the consultant on Tuesday, she spent 25 minutes fully examining the baby measuring everything possible and she said from what she's examined nothing indicates Down syndrome with the baby. This was reassuring but obviously the NIPT test results can confirm this more!

I had inconclusive results and then a redraw 2wks later. The results took a further 8days and came back inconclusive AGAIN. The lab told me this is quite common and advised to wait until 20wks for another redraw which was completely pointless as by then anything it tests for can be clearly seen on a scan. Tbh the whole thing caused me in total nearly 6wks of stress and anxiety and I wish I'd never bothered. I got a partial refund and stuck with the NHS screening and then 20wk Anomaly Scan and am up feeding a perfectly healthy beautiful baby girl.

I had a similar experience with my first pregnancy but the redraw was successful.

I had an inconclusive test with my twins at around 10-11 weeks. I had a redraw at 13 weeks and everything was fine. Mine was a Panorma NIPT which at the time last year samples were still being sent to America (the mind boggles that my blood sample was flown all the way there - it's travelled further than the rest of me! 🤣). Results were 5-10 days

Hi OP. I'm so sorry you are going through this , it is absolutely horrendous so I hope you are being supported.
I also experienced an inconclusive result. In the first place it had taken far too long to get to the lab so the result was very delayed. I had decided that I would not be continuing with the pregnancy so the later it got the worse the situation was for me.
I was offered an amniocentesis rather than a redraw and took that option. That call was on a Wednesday, amnio on Friday and results by following Wednesday morning. It is not a nice procedure but the people are incredible, knowledgeable and experienced and also give a very detailed scan before going ahead so you can change your mind at any point. I was 16+weeks at that point so needed to know.
I think it depends on what you would chose to do if the test is positive, waiting to 20 weeks could make it very difficult.
Hope you get some answers soon
All the best

Hi, my wife (same sex couple) had three inconclusive results. Bmi 34 also ivf which makes it more likely apparently. I spoke directly to the laboratory who confirmed it can happen due to bmi.

She’s currently 23 weeks and all scans etc good and very low risk from screening. I did a lot of research at the time into it all due to worrying and it’s actually more common than you think.

There is a more sensitive test that can be offered by some companies. I can’t remember the name but it’s not the panorma one. Basically there are two offered in the uk.

In hindsight if we had known about issues due to bmi etc I would have made sure we had the different test.

Was the whole test inconclusive or for just one of the syndromes? I thoroughly recommend looking at/posting on the NIPT subreddit as there is a lot of information there and licensed genetics counsellor's contribute

@ShootingStar94

Was the whole test inconclusive or for just one of the syndromes? I thoroughly recommend looking at/posting on the NIPT subreddit as there is a lot of information there and licensed genetics counsellor's contribute

Hi, I'm assuming the full test was just inconclusive as she just said the results came back inconclusive

They have a foetal fraction % below which they won't report - so they won't give you all the results bar one which might be inconclusive they'll hold back the whole report

I think if the whole test is inconclusive then that is more likely to do with a low foetal fraction, possibly due to higher BMI, sampling error.

If it were one particular chromosome that was inconclusive that is more likely to be an issue with that chromosome, and from what I've seen it tends to be the sex chromosomes that come up inconclusive more often.

Having said that though, I've been following the NIPT threads for about 6 months and I've noticed that people with inconclusive results tend to have more false positives than those with NIPT results that say aneuploidy detected or high risk, and I think that is because of confined placental mosaicism rather than the baby being affected. And it is definitely good that your ultrasound didn't show any soft markers.

I don't want to give you false hope though and think it would be good for you to talk to a genetic counsellor about your results. From my experience general obstetricians don't fully understand NIPT and the scope/limitations and what the results actually mean.

And if a positive result would make a difference to whether you would continue the pregnancy, I would go for an amnio. The procedure is very quick and the risk of miscarriage is very small. For me it wasn't painful, just uncomfortable

I hope your redraw goes well and can put your mind at rest, it's terrible being in limbo

Just to add to this baby's NT measurement was 2.5mm, I was told my bloods from the NHS test were all in range but my Papp-a levels were 0.48.