Nuchal translucency screening?

[amldaley]

Anyone BTDT? I am concerned about limiting the number of ultrasounds during pregnancy. As it is, I am 11 weeks and have had 2 already due to being high risk. I will have another 2 this month alone and I am really concerned.

Nuchal translucency screening sounds like it is only as risky as any other ultrasound, but it does make me nervous that I am having a test for no other reason than my age.

Anyone BTDT? What made you decide one way or the other? Any reason I should NOT do this test? I have to decide fairly soon.

[BabbyO]

Anyone BTDT? I am concerned about limiting the number of ultrasounds during pregnancy. As it is, I am 11 weeks and have had 2 already due to being high risk. I will have another 2 this month alone and I am really concerned.

Nuchal translucency screening sounds like it is only as risky as any other ultrasound, but it does make me nervous that I am having a test for no other reason than my age.

Anyone BTDT? What made you decide one way or the other? Any reason I should NOT do this test? I have to decide fairly soon.

I did it for my last 2 pregnancies (wasn't offered for my 1st). I decided to do it because I'm a little older and the doc said he'd recommend it for all patients if insurance covers it. He feels it is more information that parents can use in determining their health care plan.

This made sense to me. Furthermore based on my results I decided I didn't need to opt for anything more invasive. It just put my mind at ease.

I'm glad we did it if for no other reason than some of the preliminary questions led the geneticist to discover a potential elevated breast cancer risk due to my family's history. This could allow me to get early screening covered by my insurance.

[AnnieW625]

I did it with DD2 and it just made sense to both myself and DH. I didn't have that option with the baby we lost (or with DD1) so I took advantage of everything I had available to me. Had my insurance not covered it I probably would've paid for it just for peace of mind. If my clinic had not offered this I most likely would've done CVS test.

I had one other ultra sound at 20 weeks during my pregnancy. Because of the loss of the other baby I thought I would've been classified as high risk and I wasn't and it was honestly a huge relief that I wasn't.

[barkley1]

I had it done, and honestly would NOT get it again. It did nothing but cause me IMMENSE stress over the results. i didn't even get "bad" results, but you still compare yourself to those with better results, wondering if there's something wrong w/ your baby. I had a 1:1800 risk of DS, but couldn't help wondering why so many women older than me (32) were getting results of 1:10,000!!

Thank GOD the lab "screwed up" and ran the full panel again instead of just the one more test for spinal bifida that my dr ordered b/c it readjusted my risk to 1:8800. I don't know how I would have stayed sane the rest of my pregnancy given my anxiety level over the 1:1800 (1:200 is considered high risk odds for DS). Crazy, I know. My husband about pulled his hair out about how consuming it was for me, but that's just ME. You have to decide if you want to deal with those issues or not...I would skip it if I were having any more babies. Major stressor for me!

[janine]

To me this was a very valuable ultrasound. It is non invasive and you learn/see alot. The NT measurement is a key indicator as is the bloodwork. If this sort of thing stresses you out, then opt out, but I found it very informative.

I don't think u/s pose any kind of risks, even multiple ones, but perhaps I haven't dug into the data enough.

[ged]

I was seriously high risk with DD2, and probably had 15+ ultrasounds, at least, over the course of my pregnancy. Including the Nuchal. This seems to be just another screening test that some may be against, but most find informative.

[Hawkeyewife]

My question is what does this test tell you? Will it change the outcome of the pregnancy? Would you terminate if the results indicate Downs or another chromosomal problem? I have already in my relatively small group of pregnant friends had two that had false positives for downs from this test. They chose not to terminate, but both families suffered during the pregnancy. Both babies are just fine.

My SIL was told her son had a good chance he had hydrocephalus (which he did not) and suffered through her pregnancy with weekly scans only to have an unexpected surprise at birth when he was born with 12 fingers and 12 toes (not found on the scans.) Since then, I really do not have any faith in the accuracy of ultrasound. I did not have a single scan with my last two babies. False positives and negatives happen all the time.

[mommyp]

I did it this pregnancy (not previous) because I'm older now. We did not want any invasive screening, so this in combination with the bloodwork panels seemed like the best option. I found it informative and I was glad we did it. I have had 3 ultrasounds (1 in office at 1st appt for dating, the NT one, then the anatomy one at 20 weeks). The NT one is just the same as any other ultrasound.

[barkley1]

To add to PP....OR would you take the risk of an amnio if the results came back "positive". It's actually not a diagnostic test (doesn't tell you definite yes or no), but just a screening tool to calculate the odds.

The odds (national statistic, not specific to your dr) of losing a baby due to the amnio procedure are about 1:200. so, that's why they say that using the Nuchal screening, 1:200 is "high" risk and they recommend the amnio. If you had odds better than 1:200, it would not make sense to get the amnio b/c you'd have a greater chance of losing the baby than actually having ababy w/ DS.

[mikala]

We had it done the first time around but I'm not sure if I'd do it again w/ a future pregnancy. On the up side it was my first U/S and I loved seeing the baby for the first time at that test. On the flip side I received "good" odds but even then it still made me think about the numbers more than I normally would and the wait for the numbers was stressful.

The main decision point for me in the future is the "what if?" path. Before going into this I'd ask yourself what you'd do differently based on the results. Would you stop the testing there or would you proceed to more invasive testing like an amnio? We all handle these decisions and the stress around them a little differently so I'd think about what this could lead to a little with DH before getting the test.