NT of 8.7 at 12 week scan and CVS clear

[Gingerk1tty]

Hi all, first time poster here after receiving abnormal results at our 12 week scan. As the title says, the NT was 8.7mm and referred to as a cystic hygroma. No other abnormalities detected. I had the CVS last week and the first set of results are clear. I now have the agonising wait for the next set of results and potentially a cardiac scan around 20 weeks if we make it that far. I already have an 18 month old toddler and had no complications during my pregnancy with him.

I'd love to hear others experiences of NT measurements similar to mine and what happened? I'm here for the good, bad and everything in-between. I just want to be as realistic as possible.

Many thanks in advance

I know how you feel. First time here for me too as I have just had my 12 weeks scan with my fluid under the neck 4.5mm septated suspected CH and fluid around the abdomen and chest which makes even more worries as we are dealing with two things here now.

I'm glad to hear your CVS is clear that's great news tho. Can I ask how did that go? I have appointment with fetal medicine tomorrow and possibly they will do CVS as I'm pretty sure they will offer it. I'm absolutely dreading it what they gonna say tomorrow...

Sorry you have to wait I have only been waiting 24h but I have had the worst day of my life so I know what you are goi g through..the waiting is awful. I can't give you advice but I'm here because I know what you are going through. I just want to know if I should have any hope or..

Sorry to hear you are in the same boat. It's incredibly surreal and upsetting.

Well I went in for what i thought was a meeting with the consultant but she said 'i understand you are here for a CVS' when I walked in, so I just said ok and she got on with it. So you might find the same. She first did a detailed scan but didn't remeasure the NT as she said there wasn't any point and could see the volume of fluid was massive. She didn't give us much indication of prognosis - I don't think they will offer much of an opinion until the 'evidence gathering' is complete.

The CVS itself is like a small surgical procedure. I was given some local anaesthetic and found the needle going in to be uncomfortable and a bit stingy at times but not very painful. I didn't have any bruising afterwards, only mild period like pain.

Sorry to hear this. It sounds very straightforward they didn't even offer you another scan just straight to the cvs. I hope they will do another for me tomorrow because I really would like to know more details hows everything else doing such as the development, size, heart etc.

Any results from the cvs ?

Just seen you updated it came back clear!!

@Gingerk1tty how are you doing? X

@Valwithhope yeah I'm doing ok. After lots of discussion with the consultant we decided to terminate the pregnancy. The termination took place mid September so I'm around 7 weeks on from it now. It's been the hardest time of my life but I feel we made the right decision.

How are you doing?

@Gingerk1tty I'm so so sorry you had to go through this. This must have been so hard for you. I can't even imagine, I am truly sorry. Did you get the rest of the CVS result back and that's why you decided? Sending lots of love a strength to you and your family.

We had the CVS come back fully clear so that was a massive relief. I am 20 weeks now and will have my scan next week and a cardiac scan too. Getting quite anxious again as we are closer to the time but just trying to stay positive.

@Valwithhope the full CVS came back clear but given the amount of fluid behind the neck and the presence of a cystic hygroma the prognosis was poor. I felt I couldn't wait any longer or prolong the inevitable so we made the call to terminate. It was by no means an easy decision but I think the right one for our family.

I really appreciate your kind words and very much hope your 20 week scan and cardiac scan bring you good news! Pregnancy without complications is hard enough so I hope you're being spoilt and looked after by your family.

@Gingerk1tty this must have been so hard to make this decision. I'm truly sorry you didn't have a positive outcome. When they gave us the choice for CVS or amnio I had to go with the CVS because I don't think I could have waited for the amnio...
Did they confirm the cystic hygroma when you were having the CVS? I'm only asking because at initial.12 weeks scan they mentioned cystic hygroma to us but when we went to fetal medicine the consultant haven't even said anything we have that....

Thank you for your kind words and wishes and also thank you for taking the time to get back to me as I can only imagine how difficult this is for you ❤️

@Valwithhope they didn't remeasure when they did the CVS but the consultant did use the words cystic hygroma on the report. By the sounds of it our baby had a lot more fluid than I think yours did? I was led to believe that an NT of 8.7 was very very high. Hopefully that is of some comfort to you.

@Gingerk1tty Our NT was measured at 4.5mm and when we went to fetal medicine he didn't say how much but he said measured a little less but he also said it's not relevant so I'm not sure.
I do hope for the best regarding the scan and thank you again for replying.

It must be hard to stay strong but sending you virtual hugs x

Hi Ginger. Just wanted to say hi and let you know that something kind of similar happened to me. We got a 8mm NT and told baby had an appearance of a cystic hygroma, all at our 12 week scan. We had an agonising 2 week wait for an appt with fetal medicine, with the intention of having a CVS at that appointment.

I wasn't going to have the NIPT, because of the timings I was only going to get the results the day before my CVS appt. But I felt like I needed answers sooner so I had the NIPT too. It came back as high risk for Edwards Syndrome.

At my fetal med appt they offered to do the CVS but also advised that the baby was very poorly and unlikely to have a good outcome. I went ahead and started the TFMR medication at that appt, at 14 weeks.

We are still waiting on the post mortem testing results, I know there's a chance it might not even have been Edwards but whatever was wrong, it wasn't compatible with life and I just couldn't wait another heartbreaking week.

How do you feel about the future? I am 3 weeks on now and physically I am feeling pretty good. Waiting for my period to come back and then we will try again as I'm almost 39. Our baby took us 18 months to conceive so I'm terrified it won't happen for us x

@MrsScotland I'm so sorry you've been through the same situation. It's a kind of grief I wouldn't wish upon anyone. I've felt loss, sadness, relief, guilt, shame and hope all at the same time almost. I'm shocked you had to wait a full two weeks from that scan until your fetal medicine appointment. It was 6 days from our scan until the combined CVS and fetal medicine which felt long enough.

We also did the NIPT straight after the scan which showed low risk for everything. Because the NT was so high I really hoped for a diagnosis which would help me justify the decision we had already made. I still feel we made the right choice but it is hard wondering if we could have been in that small percentage where everything may have been fine, so I absolutely feel for you on that front. Hopefully the post-mortem gives you a clear answer.

We already have a 19 month old boy so we are very lucky he keeps us busy. He took a year to conceive whereas the baby we just lost took just one month. My period came back 5 weeks post termination and I will hopefully be ovulating soon so we will be trying again. I ended up needing a D&E as I had retained placenta immediately after the termination so I am a bit worried this could have affected my fertility. Only time will tell on that front.

@Valwithhope thanks for your kind words and I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you next week. 4.5 is a lot lower than we had which is very positive. Hold onto that!

@Gingerk1tty thank you for thinking of us and keeping everything crossed! How have you been?

We had both scans and baby boy passed with flying colours 💙 We are very happy that everything is normal 💙