NT, CVS or Amnio? what do you think?

[Kitt3n]

hi hun,

if you do hav the nt and have a high risk (as i did) you can get the cvs done straight away and pay a little extra to have the results within 24 hours, some of the best dollars i ever spent!!!

cvs does have a slightly higher risk, however it is earlier on in the pregnancy, where the risk itself is still higher... kwim??

i hope there is no need to go through it, but if there is we will be here for your 24 hours of hell post cvs

[titti]

thanks Kit3n!
we had the scare with our DD N-t but in the hospital (public) they never told us that we could get a quick result for an extra fee... if only!!! I spent 2 weeks crying and fearing the worse (we did decide we weren't going on if the results confirmed serious problems with the baby)... 2 weeks of living a nightmare... but all was good at the end.
thanks for your support!!!
xxx

[Emmykate82]

Hi titti,
i'm so sorry you had to go through such an awful time with your last pregnancy and completely understand that you would want to avoid the entire situation. From experience (professional, not personal) it is a tough decision to make, and one that depends greatly on your personal beliefs.

Yes NT is a screening test and only identifies babies that are at a higher risk than normal, but it is also non-invasive and carries no risk to you or your baby. Many people choose to have this done because they a) would like the heads up that there might be something wrong or b) purely because it is available and they think they should or c) because if something was found to be wrong with the baby in later tests they would opt to terminate. I am planning on having an NT, just because if there is a higher risk i would like to be prepared for a baby that may have a disability, even though it would not change my approach in having the child. Others may find the wait and the rest of the pregnancy too stressful and hence opt not to have the NT, as they would not terminate if there was a problem anyway.

The beauty of an NT is that it is non-invasive. Amnio carries a <1% risk of m/c and i believe CVS has a 1% risk of m/c. Again this depends on the individual as to whether you want to know because u can prepare, or you want to know because you would terminate. Also, one must not forget that medical tests are not perfect.. a high risk NT may in fact be a completely healthy baby, a low risk NT may still have a disability, a positive amnio/CVS may be falsely positive and a negative amnio/CVS may not have detected a child with a disability.

at the end of the day, it is a very personal choice and difficult to weigh up. i probably have just added to your questions rather than helping you answer them. The best advise i can give is to find an OBGYN or midwife or GP who you trust and develop rapport with and whom you are comfortable discussing these concerns with. Then they can tailor their advise to your individual concerns/needs.

Good luck. I'm sure you will do the right thing for you.
xx

[titti]

THanks Emmykate82.
I never heard of any false result with Amnio or CVS. I thought (and read) that they are 100% accurate in diagnosing genetic anomalies.
Does anybody have different info? I am very interested in this.
thanks

[buliej]

I too have never heard of a false result with an amnio or CVS and am very interested to know if this is possible.

[Evie76]

I wouldn't have thought so.

[HotI]

CVS takes cells from the placenta. Amnio takes cells from the amniotic fluid that have been shed from the baby.


CVS
Baby and placenta are both produced from the original egg + Sperm. The sperm enters the egg and then these split into 2 cells, and then 4 cells....

Presumably, all these cells are identical to the original cell, but sometimes there are slight changes.

Early in this splitting, the cells that produce the baby are separated from those that produce the placenta. The baby cells keep dividing making the baby. The cells that go to make the placenta also keep dividing, but are no longer part of those that are making baby.

It is possible that something happens to one of the cells that are dividing to make the placenta, that do not affect the cells in the baby. This cell will keep dividing and will form part of the placenta.

When a CVS is performed there is the chance that this 'change' that has occurred (e.g. an extra chromosome or minus a chromosome) will be detected in the placenta even though the change is not present in the baby.

If this happens, the lab will see some cells that look like the baby (the cells without the change) and some cells that will have the change.

The lab knows that some changes only occur in placenta cells (if it happened in a baby cell, the baby would not keep growing) and therefore they know that they don't have to worry about these changes.

Some changes detected through CVS in only some cells are harder to work out if they will affect the baby because they would still produce a viable baby (e.g. 3 copies of chromosome 21).

If some 'normal' cells and some cells with changes were detected through CVS, they might suggest to the Mum that she have a follow up amnio to confirm.

This would be very rare, but it is a possibility.

For a CVS to have completely 'wrong' results (ie the results from the cells taken from the placenta are not the same as the cells that make up the baby), a change in a cell must have occurred very early in a cell that makes the placenta. and this cell, must have made all the subsequent cells in the placenta and have contributed no cells to the baby.

This situation is almost so so so so rare to occur that i don't think it has ever been detected yet.

Amnio

The cells analysed using amnio are closer (than CVS) to the composition of the cells in the baby, because the cells they look at come from the fluid surrounding the baby. So these cells have come from the baby and have had less time to have changes occur (that aren't already present in the baby).

Summary

So, it is possible for CVS to produce uncertain results but this is rare, and the lab can usually tell whether the changes detected will affect the bub. Overall, both CVS and amnio are in all but the rarest times quite definitive in the results.

[mamameg]

Hi ladies, I have never posted on a forum before so I hope I dont press the wrong button. I have been through 2 x high risk downs probablilities, the first 1 in 200 (perfectly normal little boy nearly 3 now) the second 1 in 2!! With both I had the CVS and both came out normal, no problems with either CVS (number 2 is still cooking). Its up to the idividual but especially with number 2 I couldnt BARE not knowing, I was simply beside myself with all kinds of dreadful emotion. I cant even begin to tell you the releif I had when I found out there was a normal little baby growing in there and no longer have to think of the consequences of a positive result later on in the pregnancy. I dont really have an answer as to whether one should go for CVS , amnio or not, I guess I just want to say, I have survived CVS twice (im 37 by the way) and have had normal results from the worst possible risk scenario.

Good luck to everyone.

[missya]

Hi Everyone,

I had my NT scan yesterday and because I'm in NZ I now have to wait till I'm 15 weeks and have my bloods and then wait up to 10 DAYS for my ratio results!!! talk about torture!
On a positive note the Dr doing the ultrasound said the measurement was only 1.6mm and that that was normal and that she could see nothing at all that concerned her so thats reassuring.
I know my bloods will have an impact due to me having just turned 37 last week so I will be so pleased to have the results one way or another.

I hope everyone is well
Cheers Missy