Vanishing Twin 12 Week Screening

[Springb0ks]

Hi all. We have been unfortunate to lose one of our twins at 7 weeks. Does anyone know what screening options are available to us at 12 weeks. I know we can't have harmony but will the combined test be accurate, or anything else I don't know about?

Hi, I'm so sorry for your loss. I also experienced the same thing around 7/8 weeks and it was really hard to deal with.

I'm not sure what you mean re screening? Are you concerned there may be an issue with other bubs? Your nuceal testing will give you an indication and 20 week scan is way more in depth. If things are detected then, you may be offered amniocentesis (which I had in my 2nd pregnancy) but I'm sure it won't get to that.

If it reassures you in any way, my son was born absolutely healthy and on finding out about the twin, I was told that it is unfortunately a common thing to happen (early scans mean it is detected more often these days) and sometimes baby 2 fails to implant as they should.

X

Why can’t you have the harmony? I had a vanishing twin and no one said there was an issue for testing. It’s apparently very common sadly but most women don’t even know.

Hi,

Firstly I’m sorry for what’s happened.
If the sac of the vanished twin is empty, you can have whatever screening is appropriate for the gestation, which is combined +/- NIPT at 12 weeks.

If the sac contains a fetal pole, it does mean that at this point you will only be offered a NT only risk assessment. It won’t be possible to have NIPT or combined screening until the sac is empty, and has been for 6 weeks (last bit is lab dependent).

In practice we find women have the NT only screening then pay for an NIPT at 20/40.

X

@TheAuthorityofJackieWeaver yes there is still a fetal pole. Thanks for that tip about NIPT later in the pregnancy.

You sound very knowledgeable. Do you know how long it takes for a fetal pole to disappear?

It depends.... sometimes they can’t be seen again on a scan within a short time frame and some they are still there at 16/40 (if a woman happens to have a scan then, it’s not guidance to offer extra scanning for the vanished twin). But I haven’t ever come across one that’s still there at 20/40 x

Hello.
Sorry for your loss. I had a similar experience but my empty sac was discovered at my first scan which was at 13 weeks. It didn’t effect any of the testing and the sonographer said it was fairly common..

By the time I had my 20 weeks scan the second sac had completely disappeared