Hi,
Lucy, thanks for the post - it was very interesting. I have to say that I really think that this NT scan is overmedicalising (OK - I made that word up!!) pregnancy. I think that is what you and Deb are sort of saying. IMO it is silly giving women under 36 an NT scan as their risk of Downs is negligible and it just gives people unnecessary worry. There are many other things that can go wrong, so testing for something just because you can seems a bit silly to me. But giving it to women over the "risk" age is sensible.
I was 40 when I had DD and was a control freak about the whole thing and had an amnio. I had no ill effects at all and everything was OK. If I am lucky enough to get pg. again, I will be having the NT and the blood test (that was not done routinely when I had DD) and if they come back as OK, I will NOT be having an amnio. I have a 43 year old friend that had an amnio and miscarried 2 weeks later (at 20 weeks) for reasons unknown. That bothered me. and I think I would continue with the pg. even if the news was bad. Lucy, I have a lot of time for "maternal gut instinct" so things could change if I get to that stage.
I am so glad everything came back well for you - makes you wonder how the preliminary test can give a not so great result. I must research that a bit more.