CVS at London ultrasound centre or fetal medicine centre - reviews? Consultant recommendations?

[Snuggle33]

I am considering CVS and being an invasive procedure I am really quite nervous. I want to go to the best consultant with highest expertise so that chances of miscarriage are as small as possible!

I am looking at the London ultrasound centre - at 12 weeks, results in 5 days

And fetal medicine centre - at 11 weeks 3 days, results in 2 weeks

I would also like the results as soon as possible, not sure why one takes 5 days and one takes 2 weeks? Does anyone have any experience with either of these places?

Any comments, advice or recommendations would be ever so much appreciated. TIA

Is this the fetal medicine centre at Kings? I had my CVS there, it was carried out on a Wednesday morning and the results were telephoned to me at 4.30pm on the Friday. They did say up to 5 days though. Why are you considering the CVS? We had the CVS because we had an increased risk of a chromosomal issue from the NHS combined screening.

Sorry if this isn't helpful but have you considered the harmony test (or similar?) as opposed to the cvs in the first instance? Obviously I don't know why you're considering the cvs so the harmony might not be appropriate in your circumstances but I thought I'd mention it. I had a scan at fmc and they were great. I understand that professor nikolaides who runs the fmc is the person to go to.

Fmc say 2 weeks but in my experience if you call them after a week (and possibly sooner?) they have the results.

Thank you both for your comments, it's for a paternity test so I think CVS is the only way forward as the non-invasive paternity tests are unreliable.

I've heard good things about prof nikolaides too.

Sarahooo The FMC is on Harley Street, haven't heard of the unit at kings. Do you mean kings college London? How was your experience of CVS may I ask?

Thanks again 💙

Penguincrumble that's really helpful thank you.

FMC were v good but no comparison. 5 years ago for us. We got the main results in 3 days (this was Downs, Edwards, Patau & DiGeorge) and it was 2 weeks for the remainder of the result for less common issues, although I can't remember what these were. We had a specific concern. I would call and ask FMC for more info.

I'm pretty sure there is now a non-invasive prenatal paternity test (the harmony etc extract the baby's dna so it makes sense that the same technique could be used for paternity) although I think it is quite expensive. It might be worth having a bit of a ring round or hunt around online and see what turns up.

I do believe the above is correct...that paternity can be determined from the Harmony which is a non invasive procedure.

Honestly after going through the CVS and the worry afterwards of the miscarriage risk I would strongly recommend you don't do this for patently results. It's a horrible procedure (some on here were fine with it but I hated it).

I have done a lot of research into non-invasive paternity testing and am yet to find any reputable company with good reviews. There seem to be a lot of scam companies which is really sad. There is so much bad feedback regarding incorrect results that it just doesn't even seem worth doing. Believe me, if that were an option I would much rather go for the blood test!

I would love to hear if anyone does have any experience with having the non-invasive prenatal paternity test.

I would also suggest contacting the Fetal Medicine Centre and asking them if they can do a non invasive paternity test. They are an excellent clinic (money goes back into research) so they won't scam you.

Thank you Sparklyuggs, I have already contacted both FMC and the London Ultrasound Centre. Neither of them offer a non-invasive paternity test. I presume that they don't because, as you say, they are reputable organisations and perhaps don't want to offer a test that could return incorrect results.