Down syndrome test at 12 weeks?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Swathi K
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Swathi K

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I am 23 years old and 11 weeks pregnant. My doctor told that its optional to get down syndrome test at 12 weeks. He also told since I am young its really not necessary to take the test. But he left to our decision. He gave us another hospital address for the test. But anyways at 16 weeks they will test it in the same hospital. But 16 weeks test is not as accurate as 12 weeks test.

So my question is, is it really necessary to take the test?
 
I am totally worried about down syndrome and I am 33 years old. I got information about the 11/12 wk test and decided not to do it. All the research on it is completely inconclusive. It said in the ingo that people who get a positive test may not actually have a kid with DS and there's still a chance for the baby to have down syndrome even if the test was negative. How is that helping me? I did not take it because I didn't trust it. I knew I wouldn't be able to stand the fact that whatever the result of the test it could still be a wrong result. I'd still worry. I will take the 16 wk test. This test has been around longer and so I think it's more accurate.
Good luck!
 
you dont have to,its mainly for a family history of the disease or if your in your late 30s and 40s since the chance of your baby having it increases with age.i am 26 and i had the test done,and i feel so much better knowing evething is ok.if your insurance pays for it,why not just have it done for peace of mind?
 
It is a personal choice whether to do the test or not. Personally, i think it would be better to be prepared. There is nothing risky about this test, as they measure the nuchal fold at the back of the neck and this is done with a scan. They also do a blood test. Then at 16 weeks they draw blood again and the combination of these tests will yield a result %.
Also, woman of any age (teens, twenties and thirties) can have a down syndrome baby. The tests are never 100% accurate, they are just an indication.
 
If it has occurred in your family or the father's family then you may want to have the test done. Personally, when it was offered to us we turned it down. In our minds it doesn't prevent the baby from having down syndrome so what's the point of testing for it now? We (and you) will love that baby just the same when he/she is born.
We were also told it's mostly a numbers result anyway. Just lets you know what the chance is that your baby has down syndrome. I guess it doesn't actually confirm the condition.
But in the end it's really up to you and the father to decide.

Congrats! Good luck and best wishes:)
 
at your age the chances are really really low. I was 23 when I had my first and I opted not to take the test. The chances were so low, and I really don't think I would want to know because it wouldn't change anything for me anyways.
 
No, I wouldn't get it, because if you aren't at risk for it then you probably won't have any problems. The test can even give a false positive for downs. My doctor has seen many women get a positive and end up delivering perfectly healthy babies with nothing wrong with them.

I'm also 11 weeks and my doctor gave me the option but it's not something I'm worried about because I'm not in any risk area for it.
 
Don't take it - we chose not to take it because the false positives are SO high all it does is cause unnecessary stress. All of the girls who decided to get it just went through an awful time posting "OMG, MY LAST TEST SHOWED MY DS RISK DOUBLED!!" The risk would still be very small, but they couldn't get it out of their head that the risk was increasing and would jump to the worst possible conclusion. They felt like that just HAD to get an amnio done (which poses a small risk to the baby) just to find out for sure because they couldn't wait. They were all so envious of all of us girls who declined and were just enjoying our pregnancies not stressing. You have to ask yourself, would you do anything differently if you found out your baby had DS? We knew we would love our baby regardless, and it wouldn't change our decision, so why stress about a false positive?

My friend got the test and it came back positive for DS, and the nuchal fold at her 20 week U/S also showed increased risk of DS and guess what - she gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby boy, no DS. She was beside herself the last 4 months of her pregnancy for no reason at all.
 
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