I gave birth to a baby boy 1 month after my 42nd birthday. No trisomies or birth defects were evident. It took me 14 years from the moment I decided to have a child to actually having one (only 2 years from first starting TTC with DF though) so my decisions regarding testing were not undertaken lightly.

I had the NT testing. I got a result of 1/37 for DS (age risk 45) & 1/1620 for trisomy 18 (age risk 1/115). NT measurement was 4.2 so not good. Amnio was strongly suggested. CVS was not given to me as an option. I had the amnio. It did not hurt. I had no cramping. I only took one day off work. I could easily have gone back to work, but the recommendation of course is to rest for 24 hours.

I had already had 3 miscarriages but I read up on the procedure and found that the real risk is very low if your doctor is experienced in performing them.

The wait for the results was absolute torture. The 24 hour wait for the early FISH results seemed to take forever. No abnormalities were detected. I would recommend paying the extra money for the quick results as it does put your mind at ease somewhat. We also found out on that day that we were expecting a boy. The FISH results are thought to be 100% accurate but you still have to wait for the final results that can take 2 weeks to arrive. It was a huge relief when they came in and they matched the early results.

Like someone already mentioned the risk factors are based on old information. A study done recently on DS births in New York State found that paternal age needs to be taken into account when calculating the risk for DS for women over 35. The study found that women over 35 who had partners 24 or under (my DF & I fit into this category) had half the risk of DS births to those women 35 and above who had partners over 40. For some reason paternal age doesn't seem to matter in pregnancies for women under 35.

The study also found that women of 35-39 only had a moderate rise in risk compared to women 30-35 but the dramatic rise in risk was due to the age of the partners. It suggested that more research needs to be done on paternal age and birth defects.

The weeks between the NT scan & the amnio were really difficult. I handled it by deciding to announce my pregnancy anyway. I thought that if my pregnancy needed to be terminated then I needed to celebrate it now with friends & work mates (family already knew). This helped fill in the weeks between the scan and the amnio results. We bought one nuetral outfit for bubs after the scan (to try and lift our spirits) and as soon as the FISH results were in we bought a blue outfit. Once the final results were in we started to really feel confident about things and started buying everything we needed.

Best of luck with the testing process.