blood test vs. CVS/amnio

[Febhuds]

Hello all, I'm cautiously 7 weeks pregnant after multiple IVFs and a miscarriage. I'm 38, so we want to do some of the genetic screening and testing, but I'm terrified of a miscarriage. The blood tests like harmony and maternity21 sound like a no brainer compared to doing a CVS or amnio. They seem to have the same accuracy rates but no risk of miscarriage. I've never had a child before so I'm looking for others opinions on this, in case I'm missing something.

happy and healthy pregnancy to all!

 

[threebirds]

Congratulations Febhugs x

Im in a similar situation - 40 and my 4th pregnancy (3 mmc's) and we are going to go for harmony blood test around week 11. Its v pricey in Northern Ireland - but we had been saving up for ivf #3 when we got surprise bfp!
I have been reading up on it & I think if the blood test shows there is likely a chromosone problem then one of the invasive tests is recommended if you want confirmation but because of the accuracy of the blood test it prevents many invasive tests that wouldnt have been needed (hope Im making sense!). All the best for your pregnancy

 

[Febhuds]

Thanks for the response. Good luck to you.

 

[ItsAWonder]

I am 37 and pregnant with my first after 2 losses. At 12 weeks I had the nuchal scan and the Maternal Fetal DNA blood draw (brand names are harmony, materniT21 etc.) I am not sure where you are. In the US the ultrasound is covered by insurance if you are over 35 or high risk. The blood draw is not. However, many labs will subsidize the cost. If you live in the US, find out which geneticist you will see and what lab he/she uses. The lab will be able to tell you your approximate cost. The blood draw costs about $2,800 but my lab stated they would at most collect $200.00. That if my insurance covered any of it, they would apply that amount to my $200 fee. I am now 27 weeks and have not yet been billed so I am hoping my insurance did cover some.

If anything had come up positive on the blood draw, they would have backed it up with either an amnio or CVS

I also had a blood draw at 18 weeks for neural tube defects and the 20 weeks ultrasound. Both are routine.

 

[gettinginfo]

Hi all,

I had the same questions and spent a lot of time with the geneticist discussing the different kind of information each of the tests give you. The blood test is pretty good but it only looks for Trisomy 21, 18 and 13. These are the most common anomalies. If that is your main concern than I would think that would be sufficient. If you want to know about any possible chromosomal abnormality then you would need to do a CVS or amnio because they perform a complete karyotype looking at all the chromosomes(i.e they will see translocations and any sex chromosomal abnormalities like Turner's or Klinefelter's)

I was in the same predicament as I am 40. I am the type of person who really needs to know the most thorough info so I went for CVS and was scared to death! It went very well and I even had to do the transabdominal approach! I would say if you are at an experienced place the risk of miscarriage from CVS is very low. They quote about 1 in 300 but that number is likely a little too high b/c many women will miscarry in the 1st trimester and it may have had nothing to do with CVS procedure itself. Hope this info was helpful!

Good luck!

 

[3Minions]

I'm going to be 35 when this baby is born but that means I'm 'advanced maternal age' as well. I had 3 blood tests 48 hours apart this last week (at 8w). They checked the hcg and PAPP-A. Combined with my NT at 12w the tests are 82-87% accurate at detecting Downs. This will be combined with my quad screen results (after 14w) which will give me a 95% accuracy in predicting Downs and Trisomy 18. If the blood tests like the Materni21 or Harmony were free here (I'm in Canada) I would have those done, but they're over $1,000 so we're just going with the blood tests and NT results.

Good luck!

 

[ms.tjulz]

I am 36 and I went with the CVS because I am a need to know for sure type of person. Like the other mother said, with an experienced physician who does thousands of CVS's the miscarriage risk is really low. You would get referred to a specialist anyway. Mine was trans-abdominal and the procedure itself was less than a minute. Good Luck!