Rely on nhs screening?

[Joeyandpacey]

I’m 41 and was worried about the screening. Results came back low risk. Would you rely on this or still go for nipt for a double check? I don’t really understand the reliability of both. Can the results differ a lot?

Hi,

There was a similar thread a few weeks back. I’m not sure how to tag it but here was the title if you can search for it...

Screening at 12wk scan - what did you do and why?

I’m wondering the same as I’m 39 and thinking of getting the full test too. Third child for me so I think I’d rather be sure as I have to consider effects on my children. It wasn’t something I was worried about with my previous pregnancies.

The midwife advised I have my scan, then see what risk score I come up with. If it’s high I get the test for free anyway. If it’s low risk then she says it depends how comfortable I am with my level of risk eg 1 in 500 vs 1 in 1000. It’s an individual choice. She said I could pay privately for the NIPT test at the scan. She said it’s £350

Not sure if that’s much help but the thread if you can find it was helpful.

My GP recommended the NIPT so we did it privately...she said it was more accurate than the NHS one and the plan is to eventually roll it out across the NHS..

I was 33 and 36 when I had my DC. I paid for the NIPT privately both times at 10 weeks and declined the NHS screening (I just had the scan at 12 weeks).

I knew several people who had had high risk results from the NHS screening who then had to wait for further screening results etc and it was obviously pretty stressful.

I found I was quite anxious in pregnancy anyway and so I decided I just wanted the most accurate non invasive test I could get as early as possible! I also found out the sex with both at 11 weeks which I really liked.

There is no right answer on this sort of thing really, a lot of it comes down to how you feel about it and your personality type!

I'm 35 but have had several losses due to chromosome issues so I had the NIPT this week (at 11+3). I was advised by my midwife as it is more accurate than the NHS one. I really want to know if there is an issue asap rather than later in the pregnancy once I have told my family/ work etc.
I will hopefully get the results early next week.

I'm 36 and we have decided not to have the screening at 12 weeks, from doing a lot of reading we felt that it may make us more stressed if it came back with a high chance of downs/patau etc. and we wouldn't want any invasive tests doing that can carry a risk of miscarriage. So we have decided not to have any screening and what will be will be as abnormalities etc will be picked up on the 20 week scan. Its hard to know what to do really?!

Ah thanks I’ll have a look for the old thread. If I was high risk I was definitely going to do it. But being low risk, I’m not sure if it will tell me something new. I think I was about 1:1600 which is still much higher than I was last time.

I decided I would only do the NIPT if my screening result came back high risk. At 13 weeks I came back with a 1:1700 chance of Down’s syndrome which I was happy with (although someone on another thread asked if I requested an amnio after that result which took me aback!) Our results are similar OP and honestly haven’t worried about it since.

Oh @Foreverbaffled that is weird! I think that’s what I’m trying to determine. Am I safely low risk or not.

Your baseline risk of downs at age 40/41 is 1:100 so your result is pretty brilliant in my opinion. But it’s all personal and maybe you should do the NIPT if you’re going to be worrying :)