Hi ladies...just was wondering if any of you have had any experience with the triple screen test? I went in on week 14 for ultrasound and blood work to screen for Downsyndrom, Tris 18, and Spina bifida. Doctor said ultrasound came back great (measured the skin or fluid behind baby's head) and the the blood work came back normal. I went in for my 16 week exam and they said baby looks great (found out we are having a little girl) all four heart chambers are working, baby is swallowing fluid, bladder was full, and all three viens in cord were there. Brain looked good too the high risk specialist said. My blood test results came back a week later and the genetics counselor called me and said that the chance of Downsyndrome and Tris 18 were even lower but my AFT was elevated. She said that was the screener for Spina bifida. She said she wasn't to concerned because I just had an ultrasound and nothing was picked up but they want me to come in 10 days before my scheduled ultrasound. Soooo naturally I am very worried.
These tests have a high rate of false positives. I would trust what the genetic counselor says.
Thanks Jenna,
So hard to be calm when something comes back "not perfect" :)
I know this is unrelated to diabetes, but when my mother had my youngest brother she was 40 yrs old and some of her genetic screening came back bad. They thought for sure my brother would have down syndrome and they wanted my mom to do the amnio, which she turned down. Anyways, he is now a perfectly healthy 9 yr old boy and has no health problems whatsoever.
Wow Rachel...what a great story. Yeah I think since we as diabetics have to go through so much "high" risk tests, screens, and probing that the chance of finding something "wrong" in our blood or scans is going to be higher than the non diabetic which goes in when they are like 10-12 weeks pregnant for blood work and gets one to two ultrasounds the entire pregnancy...more knowledge is good but it is soooooo stressful.
Hi Nicole2711. I am a genetic counselor and have T1D (and am 11 weeks pregnant... first time). A few percent of all women who go through the screening process come back with a "screen positive" test. Almost all of these women go on to have healthy babies who are not affected with whatever they were told they were at "high risk" for. Many labs will also set the threshold for a screen positive result for spina bifida in a diabetic lower since we are at "higher" risk for spina bifida than the general population. As your genetic counselor informed you, the fact that your scan at 16 weeks looked good is very reassuring. The positive blood test gives the doctor another opportunity to do a very detailed and targeted scan looking at the spine. I see your post was a few weeks ago, so you must have had your scan by now. I hope it all went well and your worries were eased :)
rishmack - first off congrats on your pregnancy (how exciting) thank you for that information and your speciality. The detailed spin test looked good the sonographer said and there was not any cause for concern from what they could tell. It was so scary just hearing something was "elevated".
Hi Nicole: I had the same thing happen to me...one of the levels on the blood work came back slightly elevated and the doctors office called on a Friday afternoon to indicate they wanted me to come back in for an ultrasound. I didn't want to have to wait ALL weekend long to go in for the ultrasound, so I left work VERY upset and had my husband meet me at the office. Everything was fine...the doctor told us the level was just slightly elevated. It was enough to send me into a panic though, so I know how you feel. The panic was immediately lifted when they told us everything was fine and we ended up finding out the sex a few weeks earlier than we were expecting. Our daughter is now 15 1/2 months old and is the love of our lives. I wish you the best of luck in the remainder your pregnancy. :)