I was 38 when I gave birth the first time, 42 now, 31 weeks pregnant.
got high risk both times, higher the 2nd time. Nipt cleared both. If nipt gives low risk is highly accurate, but ofc it’s not a diagnostic. My 4 year old is all fine, and there are no markers or any other issue with my DD2.
I trust the nipt.
it has a higher chance of giving a false positive (so if it says high risk, it has a higher chance to be wrong so it’s worth doing a cvs or amnio) than a false negative, which is minuscule.
for your peace of mind you can do the cvs or amnio too. I didn’t as I researched the nipt and was happy with what I found.
there is also the 20 week scan where any markers or abnormalities can be picked up, again in case you don’t trust the nipt.
cvs and amnio are quite safe as well, think the risk of miscarriage was 1% in the past but now is half that.
I don’t know the options for termination.
at 42 there is no big surprise to get a high risk at the combined test :), sorry to tell you that. Even without any chromosome abnormalities, being older means the blood results won’t be as good as for a 20 year old. As good news though, it means more tests and more care will be given to older mums, increasing chance of catching any issue very early and offering treatment if needed. 85% of DS cases are undiagnosed and born to new mums, bc the combined test misses DS cases even when it gives a low risk. A 20 year old with low risk from combined test won’t do anything more, whereas me at 38 and 42 would have done the nipt regardless of what the combined test said.
the only thing to check now is how low is your Papp-a. If it’s under 0.5 mom you need to go back to dr and ask for aspirin prescription and extra growth scans. Look up low Papp-a and risk for preeclampsia, IUGR, etc. I had this but with aspirin it was all good.
good luck x