Downs Testing - Harmony vs NIFTY

[TestingTestingWonTooFree]

Hi, I'm looking into Downs Testing and trying to work out which option is best. I'm inclined to reject Nuchal Fold as the false negative rate is way too high for me to feel at all reassured by it (if it's a low risk result).

I've read that Harmony is reliable, the downside seems to be the cost - £750 where I am. The clinic also offers NIFTY blood tests which seem to be about as reliable but a lot cheaper - £300. They were introduced very recently, so I can't find much about them online.

If anyone has any thoughts, I'd welcome them. I ought to decide by Monday ideally.

Thanks!

Hi there. Having just had my Harmony result, I can certainly say I'm happy. £750 is expensive though - presume you are not near to London? I had mine at the FMC in London and it was £400 which also included a viability scan at 10wks (nice to know a little early that there's a baby in there!) and a 12wk nuchal fold scan. Lovely place. When I searched for Nifty, it was a similar cost to £400 down here. However if you search on mumsnet for harmony/nifty, there are a few posts on here now about it.

Hope that helps a little. In my mind, it was totally worth the cost

Nope, getting to London twice would probably cost £350. I'll have another look for those threads. Thanks for the advice Lottie and I'm glad it's worked out for you.

(Am I missing the point?) £750 or even £400 is a lot of money and you will know for free in a few months. You could buy a really cool pram or something else you'd really like. Is it the anxiety of the unknown in the meantime? That is hard.

I can a test and a pram, although less spent the better. Having a test won't leave us short for the electricity bill or food shop. If I was at high risk, I'd rather know than wait until birth. I'm not particularly anxious about it, but from what I've read, I would feel the nuchal fold was a waste of time.

Hi Testing, I'm in Dublin and as far as I'm aware we have no nifty testing here, I went for the Harmony test on 27th Jan at 12 weeks and it was €800 in a private clinic (maybe about 650 sterling?). We had a lovely experience, detailed scan first and then midwife took my blood. I got the results yesterday morning, which was one working day earlier than I had been advised, and baby is low risk, 1 in 10,000. As it is a chromosome test we also found out the gender, but obviously they will keep that from you if you wish. It was a big outlay but I feel it was worth it and my partner feels the same.

Hi Testing, I had the NIFTY at around 12 weeks pregnant - the clinic had just introduced it - and I can highly recommend it. The cost was £250 and that included a viability scan. I started a thread somewhere on my experience of the test and why I chose that over the Harmony, I called it something along the lines of 'my experience of the NIFTY', and that thread has all the details. The Harmony was around £750 in the same clinic so the NIFTY was substantially cheaper, and as far as I am aware the difference in price in this particular clinic is down to the Harmony including a CVS/amnio if you come back as high risk. My results were back in less than two weeks.

Thanks Montagues. Glad it was reassuring.

Swampus, that makes more sense about the price difference. Thanks!