Harmony test

[Ekphrasis]

I’ve just booked myself a harmony test, I’ll be almost 11 weeks. I’m not sure why it feels wrong! But at the same time it feels like a good idea as I’m 40. And we’ve had 2 mc this year. I can’t bring myself to have a reassurance scan at the moment.

Far too many friends have sadly had to tfmr (incompatible with life) at 20 weeks so I feel it will help make decisions earlier.

Just wondered what people’s experiences were?

I had one at 10 weeks from a private clinic. We paid an extra 50 quid or so to get a scan as well because our nhs scan wasn’t til 14 weeks and I needed to know if all was ok.

The scan was magical- amazingly clear and they are so developed already. The chromosome test result was back in about 5 days, all good. The peace of mind had been priceless.

Thank you mrs p, glad all was well. I
Doubt I’ll get my 12 week scan till 13/14 weeks so I do feel it’s a bit better to find out earlier.

Does it test all the trisomies together or give separate results? It’s Patau’s and Edwards I’m more concerned about.

I had the test at 10+ weeks with a scan 1st to ensure it was worth doing it. I'm 44, so I was worried about the risks. My results were back quickly, and it was low risk for all trisomies that were tested, I also had a nuchal scan there too (it was at the fetal medicine centre in London) and it was very reassuring. I would recommend having it, as the NHS bloods at age 40 may show increased risk based on your age alone so it just removes that stress in my opinion.

That’s what I was thinking kelly. Glad all was well with yours.

I was considering squeezing in a scan before except that they said they do a viability scan first and only charge about 90 if it was an issue. A local scan would be 50, but my deposit for harmony is 30 so I don’t think there’s any point.—may change my mind though!—

I’m a geneticist by training ...

We had a nipt (not harmony but same idea) and I’m glad we did. I’m older too and suspected I’d get a kind of not terribly high but not terribly low risk ratio at the end of the triple screen simply because of my age. I knew that would lead to anxiety, so we went for the Nipt.

We were extremely lucky and all was ok.

It tests all the trisomies separately and you’ll get a risk of high or low for each one. It’s important to note that it’s still technically a screen not a diagnostic test.

Any specific questions I’m happy to answer if I can, although must say I’m a scientist not a medic :)

We had the test at 14 weeks after a fairly high risk of downs from the combined test at 12 weeks, I didn't want an amnio. Our result was 'inconclusive' (twice - we repeated the blood test). Just to let you know, it doesn't always produce a result although that seems quite rare. Congratulations on your pregnancy x

That is rare snufkin - were you given a reason? Lab error, insufficient DNA, sample degradation can cause this, but also some things like placental mosaicism etc.

Thanks ana, yes I understand it’s a screen still and we might have to have a cvs if there was a definite risk.

Were you on the ttc after mc thread by any chance? I recognise your name!

Glad your results were good. I feel it would help with uncertainty if the nt odds came out high, especially as I’m 40.

My biggest worry actually is that the scan shows a baby measuring behind my dates which I experienced at a scan when I started spotting in my first mc. But so far symptoms are much stronger so fingers crossed all is well!

Ironically I live near a well renowned genetic testing centre and although they process for panorama they don’t do the harmony processing apparently. I guess the place in the states owns the rights?

Interesting snufkin. That must have been stressful. I hope you are ok?

I can see how mosaicism would throw the result. I hope they didn’t charge you the full amount?

I paid for it aged 40. No regrets

Thanks ana, our consultant couldn't give us a reason, our son doesn't have downs but does have health issues and we're under investigation for a possible rare syndrome. He's 6 months old now and gorgeous :)

Were you on the ttc after mc thread by any chance? I recognise your name!

I am yes. Still not pregnant..!. glad it’s worked for you and fingers crossed for you!

All the nipt tests have proprietary procedures but I think harmony is licenced out to some places now in the uk and in Stockholm where I am :)

I was very happy with ours for our first child - it was easy and reassuring (I’m an anxious person about this because I suppose I always think of what can go wrong. After recent mc I imagine I’d be even more do...)

Maybe you feel uneasy because you’re going to get a concrete result? Right now all you know is that you’re pregnant, which is great. And of course you’re anxious after a loss and having the tests always runs the risk of bad news? It’s totally understandable to feel that way. 💐

Emphasis, we did get our money back! I think because the tests are relatively new there isn't a huge amount of data on inconclusive results. Our son is doing really well now, and we're hoping to get some answers eventually x

Sorry, Ekphrasis - stupid auto correct...

Glad he’s doing so well snuf, I hope you get answers soon.

Ana I hope you get a sticky bean soon! I think there’s a level of guilt as we didn’t find out our downs risk for ds. I also work with children with Sen. At the same time we need to consider ds if there’s a risk for a serious issue (I don’t class Downs as that, though I know there can be serious complications with downs too that are incompatible with life). I think I am also terrified of the scan too.

Downs is a much broader spectrum of how much the child is affected than either Edwards or patau.

Good luck with it - hope you have a happy, healthy, easy pregnancy :)
I hope we will get ours soon - it’s been 10m of trying which isn’t soooo bad for our age. Hoping next time will work for us

I had the Harmony test after getting a high risk result for Downs from DD2’s NHS screening test. Had it at 14 weeks and it came with a really detailed scan too where the sonographer assured me that everything looked absolutely fine. The wait for the result was very stressful but luckily we got a low risk result for all trisomies. It was definitely worth the money for me! Good luck

I had one at 14 weeks when my NHS combined screen result was outside the high risk category but not low enough to make me feel confident (mostly driven by my age, no doubt). I decided the only reason not to do NIPT was money. Paying for the test was either buying peace of mind, or in the event of a bad result, buying the ability to make an informed choice. Happily it all came back fine, so now I can properly enjoy my pregnancy (and as a bonus we got to find out the sex early).

I've had the harmony test with both my pregnancies - both times coming out lower risk than would have otherwise been.

I am someone who believes that more information is a good thing - as tinymeteor says, the extra information will either give you peace of mind or the ability to make an informed choice earlier.

I had the harmony test as 40yrs, figured NHS screening would come back as high risk and by the time I had that news it would be 13/14wks, at which point I'd have gone for the harmony and if still showing Edwards or Patau would have gone for a amniocentesis - so 17/18wks possibly to a result. Whereas Harmony gave me a good indicator at -10wks, which was purely for my mental health - same info, just earlier. Downs was never a problem, just needed to emotionally know about those not compatible with life.

I had it at 10 weeks, took about 10 days for the results to come back, all normal, and found out the sex.
Would definitely recommend, we wanted to know as early as possible if there was anything wrong

Thank you all you have confirmed that it’s the right course of action. We are lucky we can just about pay. I believe it’s to be rolled out on the nhs in the next couple of years.

We did this and I was also 40. I would prefer to know and harmony was accurate for us

I doubt NHS will do it for under 40yo unless previous history of issues.

I had test done at 10 weeks so I would know before 12 week scan. They usually do a scan before taking bloods to check baby is there and to check dates.

I would've terminated pregnancy if bad results and no way I could've waited until 20 weeks. It was worth every penny for me.

I read somewhere they’ve trialled offering it for free if the NT comes back below a certain level but obviously that’s later than 10 weeks.