NIPT - Are you doing it?

[peggyhill]

hey ladies, I’m hearing a lot of information about the Non Invasive Prenatal Testing, and I wanted to know if you’ve done it for previous babies? Why or why not? What were your results?
Guess I’m just curious, my 11 week appt the genetic counselor will sit down with me and I’m really leaning towards doing it. Thanks for any advice you have!

[Ken Adams]

This wasn’t offered to me (at all?) 7 years ago. So I didn’t do it obviously. I’m hoping to be able to do it this time around!

[cmb]

First time around, I did the quad screen (two draw test).

With DS2, I did the NT and a NIPT (panorama). It was a simple draw, had the results in about a week after the lab received them. My MFM automatically did both tests 🤷🏼‍♀️ insurance doesn’t like to cover NIPTs, as an FYI. I ultimately ended up as self pay, and got billed for $450. I called them up, and they knocked it to $200.

I’ll be doing the panorama again at 12w. I liked that it was more accurate than other types of screens and tested for more.

[sammysam]

***lurking***

I got the NIPT done this time as I will be 40 during this pregnancy so it was covered for us. I like that it helped to reduce my PGAL stress a little. It was also nice for me to find out the sex early on as I was having trouble feeling attached to this pregnancy.

With DD it wasn't offered. We did the NT with her and honestly it was fine too. Here if you're under 40 they do the NT and if the results come back with elevated risk then they send you for NIPT. If you're 40 or over they start with the NIPT and skip the NT completely.

[cateyes]

I want to do the NIPT test because I have such bad anxiety but H doesn’t want to because it “won’t change anything.” Not sure yet if we will just do the quad screen or both or what.

[thinkchocolate05]

I did the NIPT for both previous pregnancies and plan to do it for this one as well. I like to know so that if, for example, we are going to have a baby who will need extra medical help, we are prepared for that. On a less serious note, I love finding out the sex early. I'd have to think twice about it if my insurance didn't cover it, though.

[fikafairy]

I will be, but for different reasons (special blood typing) and I have to send it to the Netherlands for assessment.

I’m not sure if I would qualify for the “typical” NIPT offered.

Honestly for us it’s just information gathering so we know what we are dealing with and how that might change our treatment plan. I’m a pretty unique situation though.

[moonandback141]

I’ve never done this before but I’ve also never been dancing on the border of GERIATRIC before so I’m not sure? I’ll talk to my OB about it at my first appt. I know our office doesn’t do NT scans at all but they offer everyone the Quad Screen—I’ve declined it with my last two pregnancies because I read about the high rate of false positives and my anxiety wouldn’t be able to handle that.

[peggyhill]

Thanks for the input everyone! I hope it’s covered, as it sounds like you all have the same idea as me, it’s just additional information that’s nice to know in the event we need to prepare for a special needs child.

[babystandish]

I didn’t do it with my first and I kind of regretted it. They found a spot on his heart and Insurance wouldn’t cover the harmony test and out of pocket was ridiculous so we didn’t do it. I had to have about 15 ultrasounds and was pretty stressed the whole pregnancy. Everything else looked good on the ultrasounds though and when they sent me to a high risk doctor he didn’t think it was anything and it went away at around 35 weeks. Now I’d want to know just to be prepared. It wouldn’t change anything for us, but knowing and being prepared is what I would want. Plus, it’s a relatively cheap test even if insurance doesn’t cover it. Part of me likes to do it so we see baby again too

[cmb]

babystandish the NIPTs themselves don’t include an ultrasound, FYI—it’s purely blood work. Only if you do a second type of screen in addition do you get a scan (usually the NT)

[babystandish]

cmb oh ok. We do the NT too so that’s why I assumed it was part of it.

[goldenlove]

We did not with DS and don't plan on doing it this time but that's because we had our embryos tested before our transfers anyway. I think if we didn't already know that information, I would probably do it.

[randomosity]

We've always skipped it. I just haven't felt compelled to have it done at any point.

[fikafairy]

I will say we skipped it for DS and had planned originally to skip it for DD, but when the situation changed around 11w with my bloodwork, we got one at the last second.

[sally]

Yup. I want all the info.

TBH, the fact that we were not able to test this embryo is causing me a huge amount of anxiety.

[marshian]

Doing the sequential screen and NT scan, same as with my first. I asked the OB and she said since I'm not AMA and have no genetic risk factors, the NIPT won't really be a good test since it's for chromosomal issues (increase with maternal age) and the NT does a better job of finding birth defects which are more likely than chromosomal at my age.

[babystandish]

Soooo at my 12w appt I realized I did indeed get the NT and NIPA confused. They do a Blood draw for NT and i assumed that was NIPA lol. Shows how much I know or pay attention to. My ob didn’t recommend it so I didn’t do it.

[stayingblonde]

I'm old, so I'm going to do it for sure.