NIPD Veracity test - pls share experience

[SunnyFlover]

Hi, I am 6 weeks pregnant and my private gynaecologist is offering me the NIPD Veracity test in order to check for genetic syndromes like Down, Edward, Patau... plus some additional sex related chromosome abnormalities. I am a very healthy 34 year old with no family history ( neither mine or my partners) of such syndromes. I had a perfectly healthy baby , delivered in a natural way October 2020. Do I really need this pricey test? Is it accurate ? Whilst it is 99% accurate on detecting Downs , Edward or Patau, I also read some comments that sometimes it can give a false result on sex related abnormalities, which may lead to an abortion of a healthy baby...

Please can you share your experiences ?

Hi OP!

The NIPT is not a diagnostic test. It only assesses risk. If you decided to have it and it came back high risk, you'd progress to more invasive testing like CVS or amnio to confirm if your baby actually did have the conditions, but only if you wanted to. So the NIPT alone can't lead to an abortion of a healthy baby. But amnio and CVS are invasive tests that do carry a minimal risk of miscarriage.

It's totally your choice whether to have the NIPT. As you know, the NHS will offer you combined screening for those conditions too. As I mentioned, all the NIPT and combined tests do is assess whether you have a high or a low chance of having a baby with one of the conditions you mention. I think everyone is offered screening, regardless of medical or family history, but you don't have to have it, and you're being offered NIPT because that healthcare provider is private. The NIPT is more accurate than the NHS combined test because it can detect foetal DNA in your blood, and it bases its predictions on that.

I think the NHS has now rolled out NIPT to those women whose combined screening tests come back high risk. So you get one, more accurate non-invasive test to check before progressing to confirmation with CVS or amnio. Good for those who need to know because it might eliminate the need for an invasive test. The rollout may not be true of all trusts yet, but it's definitely in the works, so you can speak to your midwife about this.

Don't allow a private healthcare facility to up-sell you anything you don't fully understand or want! That said, the NIPT often provides women with comfort and reassurance due to its increased accuracy. You can have it from 10 weeks, I think, so you've got time to do some research and make up your mind either way.

Good luck with your pregnancy, OP!

I would advise against it as a friend of mine got a false positive result on a chromosome disorder when they opted for it in private NIPT and had a period of extreme stress having further tests to determine, they got the all clear with an NHS amnio but was a very difficult time!