Harmony Test

[worriedmum100]

I'm currently 7 weeks pregnant. I'm also 39. It's been suggested that we might want to have the Harmony test. I think I understand why this is better than the NHS nuchal test but would really value hearing other people's experience/opinions. In particular, would it be a sensible approach to have the NHS test and then, if the result is bad, have the Harmony to get a more definitive result before deciding whether to have the more invasive procedures?

Many thanks

I too have been considering the Harmony test.
Would I have to go to London for it, or is it available elsewhere also?

I had the Nuchal fold and it came back with a 1:100 risk so we went to the FMC and had the test done again. I actually came back with a much higher risk at the FMC, however it wasn't to do with the scan but my blood results. I had a very very low PappA throughout my pregnancy which gave me a 1:27 risk of a baby with one of the three genetic differences. I was told that all of the markers in the scan suggested that there was nothing to be concerned about but that it would be best to have the Harmony test to be certain. I was also told that having such a high risk because of my blood tests could Just be one of those things and not an indicator that there could be a problem. We already have an older son so we needed to be sure of our circumstances so that we could make the right decisions for our family. We were lucky that the result came back as 1:10000 so we didn't have to think about all the next potential steps. It was quite a relief!

Prior to having the Nuchal fold test I was in two minds about having it as I was concerned about what the results might mean and any impossible decisions we would then have to make. I'm glad that I had the harmony blood test rather than the invasive tests and if we have a third baby then I would definitely have the harmony test again.

I would add that an advantage of going to the FMC rather than somewhere else for the Nuchal fold scan is that part of the scan and results are reviewed by professor Nicolaides who invented the Nuchal fold scan and combined tests and has been part of the research into the harmony blood test.

Just to chip in....all the nipt (non invasive tests that look at foetal dna in the mother's blood) look at cell free dna, that has most probably come from the placenta. The placental cells can be aneuploid (have chromosome number defects) even if the baby is fine. It's called placental mosaicism. That's one reason they can never be definite, only give you probabilities.
I've got a phd in developmental and cancer genetics and I'm weighing this one up at the moment. I'd certainly not skip the nuchal test at all. Don't forget there are many other things that scan can pick up, like heart defects.
I think I'll go for the CUB as they call it here (combines tests with chromosome analysis and nuchal fold) and also have a harmony or similar... Sigh. Paranoid geneticist :)

I've now had an FMC harmony and nuchal test and an NHS nuchal test. So, so happy I had the FMC scan first. They were brilliant, so professional and spent 40 mins measuring everything and showing me what they we measuring and produced a report 10 minutes later. At my NHS scan the sonographer jabbed at my stomach for about 20 minutes constantly saying things like 'god, this is so difficult' and 'I can't see much' before saying (and I can't believe that she knew she was speaking out loud) 'that'll do' as she took the measurement and 'god I hate computers, don't you?' as she saved my results. We then went onto 'I think the results from your blood tests are lost, we might have to do it again' before they 'found' my results 40 minutes later. I'll be going for a 20 week scan at FMC as well, then....