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Antenatal tests

Nifty / harmony blood test - anyone told the gender then found out it was wrong?

10 replies

2boysnamedR · 18/02/2014 13:20

I ask because gender is the only part of the test you can confirm via scan before birth.

Read on another forum that someone had a harmony test, found out the sex and was told boy. She then had a scan at 16 (ish) weeks and was told girl!

Two things that worry me are that she mentioned a clinic that did the test via a finger prick ( does not sound like a harmony test to me!) and 16 weeks is a bit early for gender unless your pretty good tech.

But if it was wrong then surely the trisomy tests are unreliable as well? I really don't think it was a proper non invasive test but its got me thinking.

So for those of you who had the tests - was it correct? I presume on here no one has given birth yet but maybe had the anomaly scans?

OP posts:
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CrispyFB · 18/02/2014 23:22

I'll let you know in a few weeks.. but pretty sure!

BUT - I can tell you this.

a) I was told 80% boy with DD2 at 16 weeks. 16 weeks is too early.

b) The finger prick test sounds like "Tell Me Pink or Blue" (or others of that ilk) which have dire reviews online and don't seem to be accurate at all. They're not done in professionally accredited labs I suspect.

Said business has now disappeared but I don't doubt others (or a "phoenix" version) has taken its place. Take a look at the reviews here: www.amazon.com/Pink-Blue-Pregnancy-Gender-Collection/product-reviews/B00183UEGS/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 - as you can see, this is a lancet-based test, so, finger prick of blood.

Harmony/MaterniT21/NIFTY etc all use professionally drawn blood from your arm like any other proper prenatal test.

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Edenviolet · 18/02/2014 23:28

I don't know about blood tests but at 15+5 weeks I was told ds4 was a boy from an us scan.

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sarah2468 · 11/04/2014 20:09

I had the Nifty test done and was told it was going to be a boy, then I just had my 20 week ultra sound scan and was told it was going to be a girl.
I am totally confused, and don't know which to believe. Kinda wishing that I hadn't asked. Is there anyone else who has had the same thing happen? I am glad all is well otherwise though, but can't help feeling a bit disappointed.

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CrispyFB · 12/04/2014 13:47

There's a few possibilities -

Firstly that the scan was wrong. It's quite possible to miss a penis. Did the sonographer see three lines or just the "absence of a penis" ? There's a big difference. Can you go for a second opinion anywhere? NIFTY should be more accurate than an ultrasound scan, for the record.

Secondly, did you have a loss not long before your current pregnancy? As it's possible NIFTY picked up DNA from that.

There are other possibilities but they're far less likely than the test being wrong, which is also extremely unlikely.

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Emmalou85 · 03/05/2014 09:25

I had a blood test at 11 weeks to sex my baby due to hireditry disorders I was told girl and they were right!

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Sixblessings · 18/03/2015 01:37

Yes ..please let people know the harmony test gender was wrong for me .. it said girl..I was so excited and googled as much information as I could bmto see if anyone had incorrect results before announcing .. only one I could find and they thought it was from a lost twin .. so I was very confident in the test .. 19 week scan confirmed boy .. still trying to get answers .. myob thinks thinks not enough y DNA to detect in blood ..but I thought they told u if not enough dna was found ?! Still making enquiries but please don't announce till after 19 week scan and cause the pain and embarrassment I'm now going through x

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MissYamabuki · 18/03/2015 01:45

I had the Nifty test and was told boy which turned out to be correct (he's asleep on top of me Grin and it was confirmed by scans).

There wasn't enough DNA in my first sample BTW and they needed to take more blood from me in order to run the test.

HTH

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Naty1 · 18/03/2015 11:17

Wouldnt intersex cause a difference between external genitals and dna result from harmony etc.?

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CrispyFB · 18/03/2015 17:31

I would trust Harmony over a scan as statistically more mistakes are made with scans than with Harmony (according to the FMC research doctor I saw when I asked!) Even if it seems as clear as day, people get surprises all the time. I know a woman who was high risk and was told girl the whole time at every scan, only to get a boy. I was even told almost certainly "boy" for my second and she wasn't.

Plus as mentioned there's the intersex issues as well, not impossible.

I wonder what sarah2468's baby was in the end?

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JanineT1980 · 17/04/2015 21:21

I wouldn't trust the Harmony test. We recently had it, having been told we were high risk for downs and being needle phobic.
We were told it wasn't high risk from the results. However being a girl she had a 99% chance of having Turners Syndrome.
Having made the heartbreaking decision to terminate, and going through hell because nhs washed their hands of us. We finally terminated at 17 weeks 3.
After the process I was told it was boy and that he had Trisomy 13, Patau syndrome. One of the things they test for.
Although it was a hard time, it made us realise it wasn't right time.

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