Blood tests/screening at 14 weeks

[sausagerollsrock]

Hi,
I had my 12 week scan last week and the sonographer was unable to check the fold of the neck.
She advised blood tests with my surgery at 14 weeks to check for Down's syndrome, Edwards and Patau.
I've just been to the gp surgery and spoken to the receptionist and her colleague who doesn't have the foggiest what I'm on about.
I'm waiting for a call back from my midwife. My friend had the same thing with her ds 3 years ago.
Has anyone else had bloods at 14 weeks? I'd assumed it was fairly common.

I thought it was a combined test - so you have the bloods done at the same time as the scan? I would ring your midwife, she should be able to tell you where to go for the tests. Mine were done at the hospital where the scan was done.

Yes it is the combined test and getting the measurements of that nuchal fold on the neck plays a big part in the combined testing results. Basically the thicker that fold, the greater the risk of a trisomy like Down's/Edwards/et

If you get your 12 week scan done after 13 weeks, they can't get a proper measurement.

Why couldn't they measure? Did the sonographer explain?

This happened to me they can still give you a risk factor based on bloods alone. My midwife did mine at the 16 week appointment

I wasn't able to have the fold checked due to the baby not cooperating
As I understand it after having a google and a chat with my mw, you can have combined screening at scan appointment between 10-
14 weeks. Between 14-20 weeks it needs to be the quadruple test which is done via a blood test.
Apparently it's not overly common as most tests are the combined screening at the 12 week scan hence my gp surgery not knowing what I was waffling on about.
whereareyou thank you. That's hopefully now the plan for me. Thanks for the replies.

How unprofessional! My friend’s baby wasn’t cooperating so the sonographer asked her to hang around and had another couple of goes in between later patients until she managed to measure the stuff.

Hopefully, the mw will have some bright ideas now.

If you’ve got the money and keen to have the test, you could get a NIPT privately. It’s much more accurate + can tell you the sex if you want but costs a pretty penny.

She scanned me for sometime. It just didn't want to move. End of the day aswell so probably wanted to go home!
I'm just grateful she told me there was a baby in there after a previous mmc.

It sounds like you will be having a different test called the quadruple test, if a woman books too late for a combined test or they can't get the nuchal fold measurement then this test is offered instead.
It usually needs to be done at the hospital rather than GP surgery though.

I had this recently but had to go back to the hospital, they tried getting me to go to the toilet & walk around but baby was comfy and wasn't changing positions! 😂 I just had to go back a few days later for a quick blood test. She said it only tests for Down's syndrome though, they said they'll test for Edwards & Patau at the 20 week scan

I had this too. My DS wouldn't stay still enough for the measurement at 12 weeks, so I had the quadruple blood test at 14 weeks. They just took a few things of blood then rang me with the results two days later. Mine was quick because I had a raised AFP hormone which can indicate a problem like spina bifida - we had a really detailed anomaly scan at 16 weeks and 20 and myself and OH then had to be tested (blood) to see if we were carriers of cystic fybrosis but all was well for us. I had to have extra scans all the way through, I think I had 8 in total. DS is perfectly fine, we never got to the bottom of what the raised hormone was about.

I got my bloods done at my 12 week scan for this.

I had to have the quadruple test done at 16 weeks with my 2nd baby. He wouldn't cooperate at my 12 week scan so they made an appointment for me to come and get bloods done at 16 weeks. Its apparently slightly less accurate than the combined test with the nuchal fold measurement but still gives a strong indication of likelihood of issues. Still get the same letter in the post a few weeks later giving you your 1: whatever chance. I had mine done at the day unit by midwife though