Is the Harmony / SAFE test worth it?

[surreygirl1987]

I'm 31 and am 14 weeks. I got 'low risk on my NHS screening. While I have no reason to believe there are any problems, my husband and I had been planning on having the Harmony test or equivalent (my hospital does the SAFE test) just for peace of mind as had heard it was more accurate but now that I've got low risk on NHS I'm wondering if another test would he a waste of money (£350!).
So my question is, how accurate is the NHS test, in comparison with Harmony test?
Thanks

Ideally you need the individual figures on the detection rate and false positive rate for the two tests specifically for the hospital you plan to use as they can vary quite a lot between sites.
Generally the harmony test is more accurate than the current NHS test but it is more accurate for T21 (Down's syndrome) than it is for T13/18 (Edwards and Patau's) and many people don't realise this when they quote the figures
Ultimately none of these tests are 100% conclusive

Many thanks. I read on the internet that the NHS screening only picks up 1 in 5 of Downs but elsewhere I read that low risk is better than 1 in 501 so a bit confused on NHS accuracy! However the cost - £350 is quite steep. We could afford it but would prefer perhaps to put it towards and NCT or hypnobirthing course. It's just that this other screening is available that gives me thus niggling worry.

Anyone else got low risk on NHS screening and decided to get Harmony test too?

I think the figures for the NHS test (assuming you had it between 11-14 weeks) is that it'll pick up between 70-90% of cases of down syndrome. So it's not as good as the NIPT (harmony SAFE etc) which is 99% but it is a good indicator. If you have a 20 week anolomy scan this is likely to picked up markers for chromosomes issues as well (esp for Edwards or Patuas) so if is clear as well then the chances are every is ok. Obviously some cases slip through the net but they are not common. Maybe chat through with your midwife at your next appointment? You can have the NIPT whenever now.

We had the harmony for DD as I thought I was going to miss my slot for the NHS test. We came back low risk but ended up with an amnio anyway as DD had a severe chd picked at 22weeks. This time we will only go for the NIPT if the NHS screening indicates we are higher risk as it was more waiting and anxiety for us last time.

My NHS combined test came back low risk (1:2375 for Downs & 1:18000 for Edwards & Patau) and I decided to get the Harmony test anyway as I wanted to be sure

I think it depends what you would do if it came back positive. We knew we would terminate so I wanted to know for sure as early as possible rather than find out at the 20 week scan and have to go through a late term abortion. If you would keep it either way then it may not be worth it unless the extra time it would give you would enable you to come to terms with bad news better

It is a lot of money but it gave me peace of mind and we found out the sex at 14 weeks which was a bonus