NT Scan

[SuziePink]

I've just had my dating and NT scan for baby number 1. I have a tilted uterus so the sonographer had trouble finding the baby but more worrying was when she did the NT measurements and found that it was 3.6mm (when the threshold is 3.5mm). I've had a blood test but I'm now thinking about having the NIPT done privately. I can't stop worrying though. Has anyone else been through this? Surely if my uterus is tilted it's difficult for them to get an accurate measurement?

Hi Suzie,

I am exactly 1 week further on than you. I had my scan done last week and was told my NT measurement was 3.7mm. (On the Tuesday).
I had the NIPT done the next day - results came back today as less than 1/10,000 for all 3 trisomies.

It's not an easy time. This past week I have had good and bad days. Today was a relief but I suppose I'm not fully out of the woods until I have the heart scan 17-20 weeks.

Please try to remember the NT is a screening test - NOT diagnostic.

For our measurements, 21% of babies with an NT up to 4.4mm will have a chromosomal problem and of the babies who don't, a further 10% can have heart or structural problems.

The odds are GREATLY in our favour and that means most babies are born perfectly fine.

I would recommend the NIPT, it's really saved my sanity today getting those results.

Remember though, the only test that con conclusively say if there is any chromosomal problem is the amniocentesis but we didn't go ahead due to the 1 in 100 risk of miscarriage.

Hope this helps.

Thank you. Yes that's very helpful and reassuring. I will hopefully get the NHS blood test results back on Friday and if that indicates a high risk I'll have the NIPT done next week. It seemed daft to me that if she was having so much trouble she didn't just go for the vaginal scan, not that it's my idea of fun! The "chat" afterwards with a midwife only made me more worried too.

I maybe should've said I'm 12+5 weeks with a CTR measurement of 63mm.

If it is high risk, you may find that your hospital arranges the NIPT as the next step. That's what happens at my hospital, they took 2 vials of blood for this reason. The first vial is tested, and if there are indicators, the second is sent off for the more accurate analysis. For various reasons that I won't go into here, I wanted the NIPT straight away so I paid to have the second vial sent off at the same time. I got 2 sets of results back the following week, the first showing 1:2500 risk of downs but the second showing 1:50000 - quite a difference! However both are considered low risk so NHS wouldn't have ordinarily sent off the second vial for testing.