Sorry, this is going to be a bit rambly and confused as i am really struggling to explain my confusion! Thanks for putting up with me and hoyou can help sort me out!!
I have just had my triple AFP blood tests back and am fortunate enough to receive what seems like fairly good news - 1/525 for my age of 31. I know I should be happy and relaxed about this and I guess I really but there is a couple of niggles in the back of my mind - for my first pregnancy (only 2 yrs ago) I had odds of 1/3000 and therefore the seemingly good odds of 1/525 suddenly look not quite as good as they should...is this a reasonable response or is it totally unreasonable/illogical to compare the two?
Also the way my mw told me left me wondering just a little bit - she said "well, the results are fairly reasonable for a woman of your age" - what does she mean by "fairly reasonable" - why isn?t is "really great" ? wish I had picked her up on it at the time.
I am not so concerned about my odds as logically they are great, my problem lies more in my ability to get my head round the stats - I understand the basic facts about stats and that the tests aren?t definitive, picking up only approx. 60% of Downs cases etc. and have done a fair bit of research but what I don?t understand is how to put this into a real working context - ie. hypothetically, 1/800 is in the negative/low catagory - but for a healthy 22yr old this might be classed as normal odds whereas for a 45 yr old this might be seen as exceptionally good results back from a triple test if you understand me. Therefore, where/how can you put the results into a more manageable format? Is there somewhere that actually states what is normal for different age brackets or is this just impossible/too misleading to calculate? I am not looking for reassurance for my own results as I understand that I am low risk and should be grateful that I am not in the awful situation that many parents find themselves in - and i am grateful, just confused about how to view it overall. Phew - if any of that made sense and you can see where i am coming from - please put me out of my misery! Thanks
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Pregnancy
triple tests - please help me understand the stats...
5 replies
StripyMouse · 26/06/2003 23:14
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