Screening test results, mistake??

[timewilltel]

I'll start of by giving a little background info about myself. So I'm 39 years old and currently 17 weeks pregnant with my second baby. My first will be 3 in November. So I had my 12 week scan a few weeks ago and opted to do the screening test also. So they took all the baby's measurements and took my bloods and last week I received the results. So as I've mentioned I'm 39 years old and will be 40 when baby is due. So with my son I was 36 when I had him and when I received my screening test results for him it came back as high risk like 1/70 or Something like that. Obviously I was upset about it but I kind of knew I would be because of my age (the older you are the more high risk you will be) but thankfully he turned out fine so anyway when I received my screening results last week for this baby I was pretty certain I would be high risk again but maybe even higher as I'm more older and closer to 40. So as I opened up the letter and took a look, to my surprise it was low risk! But not only that but it's like 1/50,000 ?? Ok, so I know there is no way in the world that result is accurate. Not only is it bang on 50,000 but all 3 of the tests done is the same so I know there's got to be some kind of error. I want to call them to confirm but I don't want to be like you lot have got it wrong but I have my midwife appointment this week so I'll talk to her about it then. Sorry for the long post but just wanted to know if anyone has any idea if this could be a mistake or if anyone's ever had wrong results given??

I had my DD at the age of 35 and got a result of 1 in 2500. I was 40 when I had my DS and got 1 in 50000 so your results are probably not a mistake. I was surprised by them as being a "geriatric mother" I was expecting a much lower result!

I had my children at 32, 36 and 41. My results were 1:10,000 for all the tests for all three pregnancies.

I think it's more likely that you're very low risk than it's a mistake.

I was 39 at my 12 week scan in July (turned 40 in early August) and I just assumed my combined test would come back as high risk (the sonographer prepped me for this too even though the NT measurement was fine). I got 1:10,000 risk for each of the three trisomies.

I actually rang the midwife back to confirm (she gave me the results over the phone on voicemail as I was working away from home and was only checking my post weekly and she knew how anxious I was about it) and thought she must have meant 1:1000 (which would still have been a massive shock!) She confirmed it was 1:10,000 (and so did the letter!)

So you got exactly 1/50,000 too! That's brilliant! The thing that also made me doubt it was how accurate it was like the fact that it was so bang on and not like 50,001 or something so I thought that surely can't be right because I'm pretty sure I've seen other peoples results as random numbers. So yeah, now you're saying this it's given me so much hope and reassurance. Thank you so much! Xx

@Ihaveabadfeelingaboutthis So you got exactly 1/50,000 too! That's brilliant! The thing that also made me doubt it was how accurate it was like the fact that it was so bang on and not like 50,001 or something so I thought that surely can't be right because I'm pretty sure I've seen other peoples results as random numbers. So yeah, now you're saying this it's given me so much hope and reassurance. Thank you so much! Xx

@HappyAsASandboy that's brilliant news I'm so glad to hear it! Xx

1:50000 is the cut-off, they don’t check beyond this. So if you’re lowest risk for everything, every number will be 1:50000!

I'd get an NIPT if you have concerns and would like an extra check. I had one at 32 and very grateful for the insight and resulting scans/DNA tests etc if needed.

@LimpetEmz yeah that's like me, when I saw 50,000 I thought I'm pretty sure they've mistakenly added on and extra four 0s by mistake, but with all your positive messages it's giving me hope and reassurance that it's not a mistake 🤞🏽🤞🏽

@HopefulRose oh wow, brag? You know I'm gonna be 40 years old in a few months and it's a well known fact that the chances will increase the older you get especially when you're nearing 40 and from what I've read and been told at this age no matter what your blood test or the baby's measurements are, you're gonna be high risk for this screening regardless which is what I was with my first baby and I've learned to accept that with this baby too. I was just hoping the risk wouldn't be too high but to now receive a letter to tell me that I'm low risk with such a large number I'm pretty convinced it's a mistake. I wasn't even expecting it to come back as 1/50 that for me would have been too high I genuinely assumed it would be below 10! So you can imagine how I felt when I saw the 50,000. So please don't bring your negativity around here. I don't post on here to brag as I haven't got time for that, I genuinely only post on here when I just want some advice and opinions from other mums as I suffer from anxiety. What on earth am I gonna get out of bragging about this?

@Emmelina oh I see I never knew that so that's why the number is so precise! Xx

[quote timewilltel]@LimpetEmz yeah that's like me, when I saw 50,000 I thought I'm pretty sure they've mistakenly added on and extra four 0s by mistake, but with all your positive messages it's giving me hope and reassurance that it's not a mistake 🤞🏽🤞🏽[/quote]
I thought I had an extra couple of zeros too!

And the post about you bragging.... 🙄 Sorry to see this. I totally get where you are coming from. Us older mums are constantly reminded of the higher risks we may have during pregnancy, and although it cannot be denied that they do exist, it's such a relief when we get positive news. PLUS the combined test is notoriously heavily skewed by age which is why the NIPT result often greatly reduced compared to the risk level result of the combined test (as NIPT doesn't put as much weight on age as a factor, apparently!) A low risk result for the combined test at 39/40 is fantastic!

Wishing you all the best in your pregnancy! Xx

@LimpetEmz oh that is really good to hear! And you are exactly right, that's all you ever see and hear about. The older you are the more complications you'll have in your pregnancy. Especially the nearer you are to 40 and especially women who are in their 40s. So when you hear of something positive when you were so sure and certain it gonna be negative, you're gonna begin to doubt whether it's actually accurate or not.

All the best for your pregnancy also, wishing you all the best! xx

Hello

I could be wrong here but is that a letter from a hospital in SW London?
If so please could you show us the first few lines of the letter as I suspect your sample may have been reflexed

In fact they do the reflex in a few hospitals, not just the one I am thinking of.

Essentially they perform the combined test first (NT, age, hormones) and if that gives you a chance of higher than a particular cut off (where I am thinking of it is 1:250) then the second blood sample is automatically sent for NIPT. The only result reported to you in the NIPT

@AndThenInTheEnd yes! It's Kingston hospital. How did you know that, do you work there?? I just read it and yes it says DNA reflex test. I'm really not clued up about any of this type of stuff sorryit's just really hard for me to understand what this is exactly, sorr

@AndThenInTheEnd sorry I pressed post when I wasn't ready to post I was supposed to attach this to it

Yeah just cus your older doesn’t automatically mean you will be high risk !

I don’t think they give your a 1:514747 chance - imagine they round it to the nearest?

I’m sure it’s fine :)

Hi OP, you said that: 'Not only is it bang on 50,000 but all 3 of the tests done is the same so I know there's got to be some kind of error.'

What do you mean by all 3 tests? Do you mean background based, fluid measurement and bloodwork, were all 1/50,000 each?

If this is the case, then I would question the background based result. I am also 39 and the default risk assigned to this age is around 1/80, so to somehow get this to 1/50,000 with other background factors (weight, smoking history etc) is a little suspicious to me.

But then maybe if the overall total result was cut off at 1/50,000, maybe they didn't bother giving you the real breakdowns and just gave you the blanket total result? If it was me, I would still ask the doc next time, as I would still be curious about the real breakdown of the results!

Oh actually, I've just seen the screenshot of your letter, where the 3 tests you are talking about are Trisomy 21, 18, 13, which makes more sense!

She can "BRAG" if she wants. She has every right to be happy about her results!!!

Wow, theres no need for that comment whatsoever. If you don't like her post just click off. Don't bring negativity to such a happy post!

Congratulations @AndThenInTheEnd those are brilliant results and look very positive to me. I'm also 17 weeks pregnant, so got my results recently. It's such a relief isn't it?x

Sorry I tagged the wrong person haha! Was meant to Congratulate @timewilltel

@timewilltel yes that’s been reflexed. It’s an NIPT result, not a combined result. Your combined result would have given you a 1:250 chance or higher - very very very common for someone in the late thirties/forties and nothing to worry about at all. But the pathway is then to perform a NIPT, so that’s what you have had done and why the risk is so small…. The NIPT result is basically binary and comes back as greater than 9:10 or less than 1:50000.

So you’ve had the better, more accurate test and it’s come back as low risk as can be. Congrats!!

Do call the screening midwives there if you want to be talked through the result, they will be really happy to explain everything x

My results at 40 were far far better than the results I had at 27.

In my experience, they don't give you a bang on number? I think mine have always been rounded up (or down I guess) to a large number, so 5,000, 10,000 etc. That wouldn't concern me.