1 in 5 downs chance

[Ssandy52]

Hi
I’m 42 and having my fourth child - I’m 13 weeks. I had a screening result of 1 in 5 for downs yesterday. Based on my age and high hcg. I’m having the Harmony on Monday. Has anyone else had similar? Thanks xxx

Hi OP, not my personal experience but know quite a few older mums who've been given scary odds basically due to age alone, and gone on to have healthy babies. Getting the Harmony test is a great plan as will give you a far clearer result. Best of luck!

Ah thank you that’s reassuring to hear. I think my odds were quite bad last time 3 years ago but just not that bad! Xx

There's four things to consider:
1 I was told that 75% of NHS high risk results were proven to be false
2 Those odds mean that there's an 80% likelihood it's a false high risk
3 I was told that some women have higher hcg in pregnancies than others do on average and this is one of the variables they test against and you have no idea if this is the case for you, so that could be a high level, but your normal iyswim?
4 Down syndrome is a spectrum, so if it was this condition, then it does not have to be a worst case scenario.

Fwiw I had a high risk, due to high nuchal fold, low pappa and high hcg. I was advised by NHS to wait and to have amnio. I paid for the harmony test. Had an amazingly in depth scan. The results at the time were sent to America. And back again in 10 days I believe. My Los results were a risk of 10s of thousands for the tested syndromes.

Good luck.

Hiya, I was given 1 in 5 chance of Down syndrome when I was 29 with my little boy. He had an NT reading of 3.8 though. I did the harmony to begin to ease my mind and it came back with 1 in 10,000. I then had the amino because I wanted a definitive answer everything was ok. I have a healthy 4 year old now x x

Thank you all so much! Fingers crossed for the result - feeling much better now x

I had this with my 4th but was a bit younger,I was 35.
I never had early testing as I've seen so many false positive and false negative results and decided against them.
However,it was picked up on the 20th week scan that my DD has a very short femur and according to sonographer, it was a clear indication that she may have Down Syndrome.Then I developed polyhydramnios,had several scans until her birth and every time they were saying the same.It was really annoying as I felt that they want to punish me for refusing the early tests,even though I clearly said several times that I really don't mind if my child has it or not.
When she was born she was absolutely fine,just short,chubby tights.

Oh that’s so upsetting that you went through that - but lovely ending! Thank you

Relative of mine was given 1 in 5 chance, might even have been 1 in 3 I can't remember now. They were only in their mid twenties so it wasn't even a distorted by age thing. Harmony wasn't invented then, it was just before it became widely available. They had a CV sampling and all was fine, nowadays they would have had the Harmony I think.

Good luck OP, it may not seem like it at times but as PP said the odds are in your favour.

Thanks everyone, I’ve never posted before and I’m so glad I did.

@Ssandy52 Hey!
Any updates on your little one?

Hey! You must be psychic! I had my little Florence yesterday after 1 in 5 followed by positive NIPT. She’s definitely rocking the extra chromosome and she’s a little beauty !

Congratulations on your baby, @Ssandy52

Aww congratulations @Ssandy52. Enjoy your snuggles xxx

Thank you xxx

@Ssandy52 Congratulations on your baby! 🎉🎉🎉
I absolutely love your positive attitude.
May little Florence bring you lots of happiness. ❤️

Congratulations. Love the name Florence too!

Congratulations @Ssandy52

@Ssandy52 congratulations 👏🏻 ❤️