Combined screening unsuccessful

[FourOclock]

I'm 15+4 weeks pregnant currently and had my first scan at 13+5 weeks. Due to the position of the baby, they couldn't get any measurements for the combined screening, so told me to get a blood test at 16 weeks instead to screen for Downs, and that they would likely detect Edwards/Patau at the 20 week scan

At the time I didn't really worry as this is my third and I'm generally 'low risk' but I was chatting to a friend, and she said it's leaving it awfully late to find out. Of course I've since been reading up about the combined screening being much more reliable than 16 week bloods and worrying myself that I should have paid for a private NIPT when the scan was unsuccessful.

Not sure what I'm asking really, has anyone else been in the same boat? Is there any point paying for NIPT now or is it too late? My 20 week scan is a month today.

I had this with my first pregnancy. I didn't have the NIPT test (couldn't afford it), but I believe it can be done at any point during your pregnancy. It did help that the sonographer was very reassuring. She said that while she couldn't get the measurements, she could see the NT didn't look abnormal, nor could she see anything else of concern. The 16 week quad test came back a very low chance of Downs, then the 20 week scan (when she finally cooperated!) revealed no issues either.

Hope that helps a little. ❤

@dyra thank you that's really reassuring. The sonographer did seem to be saying it all looked good from what she could see, but she was a bit vague, I got the impression she wasn't really allowed to say for sure without the proper measurements. The NIPT is soo expensive isn't it, maybe I will wait till the downs results come back and then decide. If baby is equally as uncooperative at the 20 week scan (!) then maybe I will think again