My husband is making me anxious...first trimester results

[figsandolives]

Hi Ladies, our preliminary first trimester screening result came back as 1 in 2500. I'll be 37 when baby is born....
My husband is getting paranoid and still wants a definitive result with amnio...
His paranoia is getting to me now LOL

Our Level II ultrasound isn't until 19 weeks..I'm almost 15 weeks now. I feel that is a bit late if we want to get an amnio... ?
Also I'll know in about 2 weeks what my final integrated screening results will be.

The thing that gets to me is if you compare two women , same age, one having a risk of 1:100 and another having a risk of 1:2500, it can very well be that the woman with the lower risk 1:2500 ends up being the "1", while the other woman having a healthy baby! Right???

Thanks for your insight.

[DMS721]

Those odds sound really good.

I guess it depends on what you would do if you came out with bad results. If you thought you would terminate, then you may want to ask about getting an amnio sooner than your 19 week ultrasound. If the results wouldn't change what you would do with the pregnancy, then I would wait and see what the ultrasound shows before deciding on the amnio. The amnio is pretty safe, but it isn't without risks. The skill of the doctor plays a large part in minimizing the risks of the amnio.

Good luck!

Dawn

[SC-Sherb]

I agree with BC-DMS721.

My sister was the same age when she was pregnant with her last little guy. Her NT scan result was 1.9 mm (which was still less than the 3mm) but her bloodwork gave her something like 1 in 2000 for Downs Syndrome and 1 in 250 for Spina Bifida. Her DH was pushing for her to have the amnio as well and she almost gave in but she decided to wait until her 20 wk u/s. Her little guy was perfectly fine at the 20wk u/s and born perfectly healthy.

Good luck hun. I'm sorry that you are struggling with this decision but those numbers are still very good odds.

[hopeful4myown]

Figs,

We are going through the same thing... .We have a 1 in 12 chance (~10%) that the baby has Downs... I will be 36 on Sunday. This gives us a 90% chance that everything is fine. We are not having an amnio, we are wating for the 20 wk anatomy scan because we decided long ago that we wouldn't do anything if genetic results came back bad (we made this based on the possitive assumption that we wouldn't have a problem, maybe a little niave...). Also my dr explained that you can have an amnio at anytime during your pregnancy. The time line comes in that you can only do "something" about it until about 24 wks.

Anyway, your 1 in 2500 is 0.04% of something being wrong... or 99.96% chance that everything is fine. Just for your perspective. Also, as it was explained to me on another board, the results of this test are based on blood work, NT, and your age... If you had the same blood work and NT and you were 5 years younger, probably even smaller chance.

Anyway, you will have to do what you and your husband are most comefortable with, maybe the % numbers above will change how you look at it. The risks are never 0... but your 99.96 looks pretty good to me right now .

Nicole
Best of luck to you.

[figsandolives]

Thanks everyone so much..
Nicole best of luck to you.. i know it seems low (1:2500) but sometimes i wonder how much to believe anything these days. I will be getting my 2nd tri blood work on Monday and get the final revised results a week after that.

just a side note... i was pregnant earlier this year with a due date of July 2011.. I lost the baby at 25 weeks (I stopped feeling him kick). I had had an amnio, (because I was unable to do any of the screenings due to a vanishing twin syndrome..I had lost twin-A at around 9 weeks) which came out with perfect results, and I did not lose the baby from the amnio. (At least that's what I'm told).

I had the amnio at 18 weeks. I was naive also to think that if the amnio is good, then i'm good to assume I will deliver a healthy , live baby....
They didn't know what was wrong, but placenta was small, and full of clots. And the baby was measuring more like 21 weeks.
I had a barrage of blood work done for blood clotting issues, and they found nothing significant. I was diagnosed with MTHFR deficiency but they said my homocysteine levels were normal , not elevated so nothing to worry about.

I guess my point to all this is that I seem to be getting the rarest of events actually happen to me and they're not just in my head.
Thanks again everyone.

[hopeful4myown]

Figs, I am so very sorry for your loss. I have had several miscarriages myself but none so far along. With your history I would probably do as much as I could.

I also have MTHFR and took extra folic acid and baby asprin through my first pregnancy. There is some controversy in the medical community whether or not MTHFR has any affect on pregnancy at all. My homosystene levels were normal too. I am currently taking extra folic acid but not the baby asprin.

I wish you the best of luck and understand (to some extent) how you feel. You should do the testing that makes you feel comefortable.
Take Care of yourself.
Nicole

[BC-GoMom]

figsandolives,
Do you have an update? We would love to know how you are doing!

[figsandolives]

Hi BC-GoMom,
Well things have definitely calmed down since my posting..The waiting was getting on our nerves.
I got my final Down syndrome risk factor to be 1/3900, so at this point we're skipping the amniocentesis. Everything seems to be going well so far.. I have my Anatomy scan in less than a week (at 19 weeks) so that will also help us feel more confident .. i'm especially anxious to find out that baby is measuring correctly because with my stillborn, baby was measuring 1 week behind, but that did not raise any alarms at the time.

That's it really.. I'm slowly beginning to get my hopes up that I'll have an actual baby in May, God willing.
thanks to everyone's concerns and prayers.
~~figs.