So glad I had CVS

[Louamassingberd]

Hello,

I just wanted to share my recent experience of having a CVS and say I personally am really glad I did it.

I had the combined test for Down's at 12 weeks (blood and nuchal fold) The nuchal fold was at the high end of normal (3mm) but my bloods (PAPP-A was OK but HCG was higher than normal) The result came in as a 1 in 75 chance of my baby having Down's.

i agonised over whether or not to have an amnio or CVS. My chances of having an affected child were 1.5% but the chance of miscarriage through the test was 1% so they were pretty much equal.

My DH was initially against doing anything as he was really thinking about the odds being in our favour and thinking very much of the stats. However I think as a woman I just couldn't get away from he emotional side of things, yes I understood the stats but I couldn't help having the nagging doubt in the back of mind.

I had sleepless night and decided I wanted to know for definite. We went to see the midwife at my local hospital and it really helped. She talked me and DH through all the options and think it particularly helped DH see having the test was the best option for us. I also spoke to ARC who were really good.

Anyway I decided to take the option of going to Kings College Hospital for a CVS as that was one of the options my local hospital offered me. They are a centre of excellence for the south east and are complete experts in this field. Also I would have had to wait until 16 weeks for the amnio and just wanted to get it over with.

I am really glad I took this option. I had a very detailed scan beforehand which took about 45 minutes and they looked at everything, even blood flow through the baby's liver. They look for soft markers of Down's which are things such as heart defects and absence of nasal bone and luckily our baby was found to have none.

I then went for the CVS and had one of the top consultants doing it (I insisted on that as one of the less senior doctor's was going to do it under the consultant's supervision) He completely put my mind at rest and did the procedure very easily and in only about two minutes. There was no real pain at all, just a small amount of discomfort, a similar feeling to having a blood test or something really. I also closed my eyes throughout the whole thing which I think helped as think if I had seen the needle it may have freaked me out. Honestly though, please rest assured from my experience this procedure is fine and honestly nothing to worry about.

Anyway the wait for the results is by far the worst bit. You just agonise over the what if's and stare at your phone all day.

I found out today though that baby has tested negative for Down's, Edwards and Patau so we are thrilled.

I am so glad I had the test. Yes going through the mental anguish of it all has not been easy but it is worth it to be given peace of mind in my opinion. If you are a natural worrier as I am I think it is better to get the test done and just know for sure.

I can now enjoy the rest of my pregnancy and look forwards to meeting my little boy (yes we found that out from the CVS too!) When I was going through everything I didn't feel happy in my pregnancy and was getting upset all the time so from my point of view I am so glad I had the test.

Hope my experience helps.

[NatzCNL]

What a lovely post! Thanks for sharing your experience. I too had a CVS back in August at Kings College. I had a doctor supervised by a consultant, and found it rather uncomfortable.

Congratulations on your pregnancy and I wish you and your baby son all the best. Enjoy your pregnancy

[Sparklies]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I am very glad it all worked out for you. As you know we all have different reasons for the choices we make and what is right for one family is not right for another.

Much depends on what the risks are and for what, what you would do with that information if you had it, your personal beliefs, medical history, how you cope not knowing, and how you feel you would cope if there were complications from the CVS and so on. Obviously the ideal is your happy ending but it is unfortunately not guaranteed even if the odds are really low of complications. I know of too many sad stories involving healthy babies. It is a lot easier to be happy about a decision if it all works out fine.

After screening 1 in 34 for T21 due to bad bloodwork, I was also offered CVS at Kings, and later amnio at Kings, but after much soul-searching and careful consideration, we declined but had detailed scans regardless. We're going for an amnio at 32 weeks instead when the risks are really only those of preterm labour. It's been a long, hard wait, and I am a natural worrier too (understatement!) We were helped a little by our second clear scan at 19 weeks (now 25w3d) but we are happy with our decision too.

There were lots of reasons to decline the invasive testing, but the over-riding ones were that we wouldn't terminate and I couldn't live with the guilt for the rest of my life if we lost the baby as a result of the procedure. Waiting an extra 20 weeks rather than a lifetime of regrets to avoid that risk entirely made sense to me.

This isn't a dig at you personally at all (promise!) - just putting the other side across as lots of us who choose to wait sometimes get quite a bit of flack, believe it or not.

Roll on the non-invasive diagnostic blood tests they are developing so no family is faced with this choice again.

Congratulations on your healthy baby, I'm glad it all worked out fine, and I hope you can now enjoy the rest of your pregnancy! I can't pretend I'm not envious of you knowing for sure

[fifitot]

I think if I had had the good scan you experienced I might not have bothered with the CVS. However that's just me - I agonised about an amnio and in the end didn't have one, after a great scan.

Glad it worked out how you wanted though.

[Louamassingberd]

Thank you all for your messages. It's interesting to hear different points of view as it really is personal choice at the end of the day. Everyone has their reasons for either doing the test or not and Sparklies, like you say a lot of it is down to what you would do with the information if God forbid anything was wrong.

Sparklies, good luck with the amnio at 32 weeks and am glad to hear you had a clear scan.

I think what is clear from all of the posts in this section is it is a really difficult decision on whether or not to have the invasive tests and people have very different opinions on it. I also have to say I think the combined test is awful in a way, it just seems to give these statistics and put people through a lot of unnecessary stress because of the number of false positives. I would really think hard about whether or not I would have the combined test again.

Good luck to anyone else who is experiencing all this at the moment. I hope it all works out for the best.