What is the benefit of Harmony test?

[BessMarvin]

I've recently found I'm pregnant again.

With my first there was no NIPT then. Now this is something you can do privately.

Looking into it, it seems to cost about £400 for a scan and the blood test. It's quite expensive so I'm wondering what the pros are for doing it?

OK you find out the sex earlier than the 20 week scan, but that just seems like a bonus.
You get a scan to see if everything looks OK so far, but just paying for an early scan is much cheaper.

So it must be about the tests. So what is the advantage of this rather than what the NHS will do as a matter of course?

Thanks for any advice!

I really wanted to do a Harmony test privately because at 41 I was v stressed out about my age as a risk factor, but the company that runs them warns in the small-ish print that they can give a false positive for Downs if you have cancer (like I have). I called them and asked why and was put through to one of their scientists who said that they can’t guarantee it’s the baby’s DNA they’re testing, it could be mistakenly reading your cancer DNA, and some cancers have the characteristics of an extra chromosome.

I think more women should know about this as since I’ve joined a cancer/pregnancy support group I’ve learned than 1 in 1000 pregnancies is affected by the mother having cancer. That seems like a lot of women to me!

Cheery145