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Pregnancy

Nuchal fold test - results

42 replies

Cha · 18/02/2003 14:15

Just had my 12 week nuchal fold test and we are unsure of what to do next. Just thought I'd ask you wise women out there what you think.

I am nearly 36 and therefore have a 1 in 210 risk of having a Down's Syndrome child. After the scan, this went up to 1 in 1745. The sonographer said if we wanted we could have a CVS in the next 2 weeks which carries a 1 in 100 risk of miscarriage. Anyone out there with similar stats? What did you do?

OP posts:

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BumblBeee · 29/08/2008 18:28

Maybe you can look at an old ante natal club to see if she joined it?

ImnotMamaGbutsheLovesMe · 29/08/2008 17:52

I wonder what happened with Cha? The OP was posted in Feb 2003.

dinny · 29/08/2008 17:50

oooh, great, can you send me your address? xx when - afternoon?

hatrick · 29/08/2008 17:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

dinny · 29/08/2008 17:07

God, yes, I remember now.... How is he doing? How are you coping with 4? had a scare on Wed, had a bleed but all seemed OK at scan. feel SO sick though, getting me down.

must come and see you before we go back to school - you around Monday? xx

hatrick · 29/08/2008 16:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

dinny · 29/08/2008 16:45

just that the bub was measuring 4 days bigger than my dates (prob cos I have v short cycles, the sonographer said)

wondered if it made a difference - which gestation they calculated s/he at...

BumblBeee · 29/08/2008 16:18

there are different expected thicknesses during different weeks of pregnancy

dinny · 29/08/2008 15:07

does the result depend on the gestation at which you have the test?

BumblBeee · 29/08/2008 14:26

No luck finding this statistic. I know the pre test risk is ridiculously bad, 1/35 or similar.

BumblBeee · 29/08/2008 14:05

"when your baby could still be born with a disability, or develop a condition which you cannot possibly test for or expect."

Yes I was trying to make this point also.

I personally feel that as I can risk having a miscarriage that it is worth having the test.

I will try to google results for oldies..

fondant4000 · 29/08/2008 12:56

bumblbee - is it actually possible to get a result of 1/1200 at 42?

I only ask because I seem to remember thinking when I was pg with dd2 at 43 that because of my age there was no way that I could get a really low risk factor like that. The bar is set too high for us 40+ers !

I was just happy that the result I got was better than expected for my age.

Don't remember the result, but I do remember the NT being 1.3mm - which is what I was looking out for more than the ratio thingy.

This and the amnio etc. are no guarantee you won't have a disabled child. It is only testing for a specific disability - and not the most disabling a child can have either.

People focus so much on these tests, when your baby could still be born with a disability, or develop a condition which you cannot possibly test for or expect.

ajm200 · 29/08/2008 12:54

First time, I just had the scan and the numbers were great. This time I had the triple test too and the numbers were closer to the correct range for my age.

ajm200 · 29/08/2008 12:51

First time, I just had the scan and the numbers were great. This time I had the triple test too and the numbers were closer to the correct range for my age.

lou031205 · 29/08/2008 12:40

Here, we get offered the nuchal fold scan and the triple test at the same time. I personally declined both, but I am merely posting to say that they do offer both on the NHS in some areas.

ajm200 · 29/08/2008 12:32

I had results like yours last time as was very surprised to get 1:350 this time. I'm 35.

I'll love my little one regardless

BumblBeee · 29/08/2008 12:27

"re: On the NHS you are not normally offered an Amnio or CVS unless the NT result is 1:250 or less."

FYI the cost for this privately is about £450

dinny · 29/08/2008 11:13

my NT was 2.0mm

think as it has lowered the risk considerably, that is suffifient for me

becaroo · 29/08/2008 11:09

My result was 1:1122 and NT was 1.8mm. I was told this was a low risk result.

I will be 36 in october and my baby is due in 3 weeks.

On the NHS you are not normally offered an Amnio or CVS unless the NT result is 1:250 or less.

HTH x

BumblBeee · 29/08/2008 10:15

As I understand it the meds think anything above 1/500 is a good result.

What is good of course is highly subjective.

Here is my own humble opinion:If you have a low risk, say above 1/1000 you should bear in mind:

You will never get a no risk statistic or a 1/10,000 risk (as far as I know anyway)
The older you get your risk goes up so a 30 year old who risks miscarrying a low risk pregnancy may end up with a higher rate risk pregnancy next time.

If you have a 1/500 or higher you must ask yourself what would be worse losing this baby or having a Down's baby.

On top of this we all must remember that even if all our babies were born without Down's they still are at risk of many other health problems and disabilities in life (as are we) so you can not ever guarantee that you will raise a perfect, healthy child.

Personally as a 42 year old I have decided to go for CVS if my result is below 1/1200 as I can live with the risk of miscarriage and do not have enough money or patience to have a severely disabled child.

Not a great position to be in for us all I know!

Good luck every one. xx

dinny · 29/08/2008 09:08

I had my nuchal yesterday - average risk for my age is 1/250 and mine went down to 1/740

I still think that's quite high compared to dd and ds's results, who were up in the 1/1400s. Is it an age thing/ Have been reading some threads where people my age have much much better odds and am bit worried now. (the sonographer said was good result though)

Thanks.

Cha · 20/02/2003 17:11

aloha - I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing the lovely, delightful Kypros Nicholaides who invented the nuchal fold at Kings. I actually watched him perform an amniocentisis which he did like it was the easiest, safest, most routine thing in the world. Maybe this made me feel less 'scared' by the whole invasive test thing, hearing him talk about it and seeing how he did it. That was when I did not know that my result was such a good one.

I wonder if they factor into the 1 in whatever result the fact that the nuchal fold only detects 80% of Down's? Or is your result only calculated on what the sonographer can actually see at the time? Anyone know?

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zebra · 19/02/2003 21:38

I think AIMS just has a very noisy bee in their bonnet about women being totally informed (& empowered) about risks and choices. AIMS were reviewing real incidents (like amnio needles really do occasionally poke the fetus). I think they cited 5 cases in a 3 year period. So, Very, very rare, but it's a quite appalling thing to consider.

Caroline5: I imagine the AFP might only be able to catch 20% or so of Chromosone defects, but the nuchal fold would spot 80%. So you would need to interpret the tests relative to how sensitive they are. Example: the general risk at age 36 of chromosone defects in a baby is about 1/150. Nuchal fold might take that, at best, to 1:1745 (like Cha got). AFP might not be able to lower it to any better than 1/500 (I'm guessing, don't know quite how good AFP is, but I recall AIMS has another critique for the interested...). It might seem like the AFP is contradicting the nuchal fold; but it wouldn't be. Both the Nuchal fold & AFP would be indicating significantly reduced risk. Conversely, just because nuchal fold is thick -- would you dare risk an amnio? I used to think I would only risk amnio if both the nuchal fold & the AFP suggested high risk of chromosone defects.

I would treat the two tests as independent; AFP will catch chromosone problems when nuchal fold didn't, & visa versa. Therefore, to me, AFP still seems like a valuable thing to still have. You just have to remember that it AFP never going to give you as low a risk as the nuchal fold can.
If that's too confusing, then yeah -- just go with nuchal fold!

aloha · 19/02/2003 21:05

Cha, I'm delighted! If you have your nuchal fold at Kings then you are lucky (as was I!) because that's where they invented it and the stats there are brilliant. I also don't think the blood test is a patch on the nuchal fold so wouldn't bother to have both. The risks of cvs and amnio are, I think, overstated - not the miscarriage, though that is lower with a good practitioner, such as you'd find at Harris - but the other scary stuff that Zebra has posted. Sorry Zebra, but I truly think the AIMS stuff needs to be taken with more than a pinch of salt - they are the provisional wing or, indeed, the Al Quaeda of Midwifery and fond of scaremongering. Cha, I honestly think you've made the right decision and I'm very, very pleased for you. Enjoy being pregnant.

Caroline5 · 19/02/2003 18:29

That's really interesting, Zebra. I was told by our sonographer that we shouldn't have both blood tests and nuchal fold tests done as they often give such different risk factors, you are left totally confused. Is this right, do you know?

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