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Down Syndrome Screening for an unborn baby

KS78

KS78

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 9, 2008
Messages
945
Hello everyone. I would really appreciate if you guys could give me an idea about the ballpark cost of a screening of this type in Midwest of US (Iowa State).
My wife will go to visit her parents and sister who live back in Dubuque, Iowa & the doctor advised her to get that screening done while she is back in Iowa since that is the right time to do it for detecting any problems. The thing is we don't have insurance there and I have to send her money for it. She doesn't know either and it would really be helpful for me to have an idea now so I can plan accordingly.
Thank you all very much.
 
My wife had it done for free in the UK as she was an older mother and apparently there is an increased chance in older mothers, or so we were informed, statistically.
There is, or certainly was (don't know if this is still the case) an increased chance of induced miscarriage with the amniocentesis test at the time. We went along with it because we were new to parenting and were happy to be guided by the experts.
Luckily the tests came back negative and my wife went full term and we have a genius treasure of a son who is now 17.
It was only afterwards we thought, well actually, if the tests had come back positive, would we have aborted the pregnancy.....and after much discussion we decided not. So, she had taken the test which could have caused a miscarriage on a perfectly healthy baby, purely because of guidance from 'the experts' without pre-discussion about whether or not it would have influenced our decision to go ahead to full term with the pregnancy......

So, I know this is no help at all to your original query, but if the test was to come back positive, would you abort or not? - if not, I'd recommend against the test...if so, are you prepared to risk the life of you as yet unborn, but possibly perfect, baby to find out?....

Whatever you choose to do, good luck and I hope you are blessed with a true treasure :)
 
Thanks Davem.
LoveAlways; you know, I feel very stupid now. How didn't I think about this at allllll? You are one smart human being. Thank you too.
 
I don't understand why your wife's obgyn is not ordering the test where you live and currently under care.
Does she plan to give birth and transfer her pre-natal care in Iowa where you are not insured? Why would you do that?
How old is your wife?
 
We live in London but are going to move to Istanbul in April. She moved back before me since my parents are there and she wanted to visit them. Then she went for a check up while in Istanbul; two days ago she left for Iowa to visit her parents and she'll stay there for about two months to catch up with her parents, sister, grandparents, ... Basically, she will be returning back to Istanbul, not to London and she needs to get the test around the 13-14th week for the test to be spot on. As you can see, this moving thing and both sides of the families & us residing in three separate countries/ continents are making everything a little bit more chaotic than it needs to be; the things which aren't a big problem are becoming one because of the timing, change of residence & the distances travelled being so vast.
Finally, she is 29 years old.
 
It all depends.

If she is 35 and over she should get the amniocentesis done as rick for down syndrome starts to significantly increase from that age. If she is younger, depending how much younger its up to you if you want the amnio. The amnio increases the chance for miscarriage by 0.5%. Not much.

Personally I would wait until the end of first trimester or 20 weeks when they can tell the baby's sex. If there are abormalities on the ultrasound and the blood test, then I would get the amnio. If the baby has down syndrome or another serious abnormality, the ultrasound would show it. The physical parts of the baby would be different than a normal baby. There is now way an ultrasound would be normal if the baby had something like down syndrome.

Some families have diseases that are common in that family. There is also something called chorionic villus sampling (CVS) which can tell if the baby has down syndrome around week like 10-12 I think or way earlier than an amnio can be done. Risk of miscarriage is around 1% here.

First you get a blood test...that blood test shows the different chemicals released by the baby. If they differ from normal, then right away they send you for an ultrasound where they look what those abnormal chemicals can be all about. A down syndrome baby will always show an abnormal blood test. Basically its very hard to miss down syndrome if the woman gets tested in any way pretty much. But an abnormal blood test does not mean the baby has down syndrome or any serious abnormality. That's why with an abnormal blood test they always do more testing to find out whats wrong and most of the time its nothing.

Those tests can be very expensive w/o insurance as they take a lot of time. An amniocentesis for example gets taken by the doctor, which already would cost several hundred dollars. And then it gets send to a lab which takes anywhere from 6-10 days to give you the final results and 1-2 days for a preliminary result. The lab work for an amnio or a CVS can be around a $1000 or more.

So it all depends on her age and the results of the blood test. I think the blood test itself would probably be something like at most a few hundred dollars. Then it depends from there if more testing needs to be done. It's not a once price things, but different for every case and what needs to be done.

It would be much better if she was getting these tests where her insurance would cover it. It's not as simple as going to a doctor for strep throat.
 
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I also don't know which test you are talking about as there are several.

16th week is the earlies you can do an amnio and you can do it later and the results will be correct. It's not like at different times of the pregnancy you will get differnt results. Unless the lab makes a mistake and they switch patients.

CVS can be done as early as 10th week and later and results are also not changed by when in pregancy its done. The chromosomes will always stay the same, no matter when and where you test them.

The only thing I can think of that can change is the blood test. Which is just like a regular blood test but gets send out to different places. The chemicals that the baby releases can change as the pregnancy goes along. The time you stated might be the best time. But even if you miss that window an ultrasound will tell you of any abnormalities anyways.

This is just stuff I know from things. Best to talk to a doctor.
 
I worked for an ob and everyone of her patients took the test, no matter the age. I think its a liability thing, you know like if it happens to 1 in 100,000,000 patients under 35, they want to risk being sued if not screening for it. My most recent ob asked me if I wanted to have it done, but told me it wasn't necessary.
 
i dont know much about the test now, but i do know my parents had the test when my mum was pregnant with me, and the doctor said the test had indicated there was a possibility i would develop downs syndrome. i dont have downs syndrome tho
 
tvas22 said:
i dont know much about the test now, but i do know my parents had the test when my mum was pregnant with me, and the doctor said the test had indicated there was a possibility i would develop downs syndrome. i dont have downs syndrome tho
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Yeah that happens. I was told the test isn't that accurate at all.

When I was born they didn't have a test for Downs.

But my dad's friend's wife was pregnant with their 2nd son in the late 90s and she got the test done and it said how there was a high probability that her son would have Downs and he does not have Downs syndrome at all.

KS-Call the lab or have the doctor do it?
 
LoveAlways said:
yeah...but it gives ppl shit to do (lab workers) and typically the insurance pays for it so whatever. Also it puts new mothers at ease when it comes back negative :\
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....and really puts the shits up 'em if it comes back false possibly positive - yay for science!!!...as I said earlier, would you abort if Downs Syndrome were ID'd? - if not don't bother with the test...if so, then prepare yourself for parenthood, 'cos it ain't as easy as you think it will be if you think aborting downs syndrome is a good idea. I've known several Downs Syndrome children through my job, and although I'm not a specialist, they were all wonderful individuals and I'm glad they weren't aborted as it enriched my life meeting them.....
 
PriestTheyCalledHim said:
Yeah that happens. I was told the test isn't that accurate at all.

KS-Call the lab or have the doctor do it?
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The blood test just shows an increased risk of down's. That's it. What they test in the blood test are several chemicals that a baby releases. Kids with Down's and other similar disorders always show an abnormal test. Also perfectly healthy babies show an abnormal blood test. So this particular test can't tell you for sure if the baby's got down's or not. You can't say the test is not accurate. It gives an idea and if the age is higher then together you decide whether you want more accurate testing.

Amnio and CVS are 100% accurate. Always. Unless the lab makes a mistake or the test doesn't work out. So when you get the results back, it's always good to repeat before you decide to abort especially if an ultrasound is normal and doesn't indicate down's. Cuz even an ultrasound can tell the hallmark characteristics of things like down's and other abnormalities. But just cuz there are abnormalities on the ultrasound doesn't mean down's. The only accurate tests right now are amnio and CVS and some molecular level tests. All other ones are just for speculation and risk assessment.

It all depends how much you wanna spend to make sure your baby doesn't have down's or if the insurance will cover it.

The reason CVS and amnio are 100% accurate is cuz you take the cell's chromosomes and you look at them under the scope. A normal human has 46 chromosomes, 23 pairs and a down's baby has an extra chromosome 21. The only abnormality which survives into adulthood is triple 21. There are 2 other common ones that survive usually for a few days only. All other triplications are not viable. So if you process the chromosomes and you see that in every cell there is a triple 21 chromosome the baby will have down's syndrome.

Some cases are more complicated, but that's very rare. Sometimes a baby can have several cell lines and in some parts of the body it will be normal and in some parts it will be down's. If the brain is normal it can have a pretty high intelligence and live a relatively normal life. It just depends what body parts are affected. So when you get a down's result, in a very small # of cases, not the whole baby is affected, just part of it. But if you do get a positive down's syndrome amnio or CVS, the baby is affected 100% in some way.

I think the most difficult decision would be if you had twins and one baby had down's and the other didn't. Saw that happen.
 
LoveAlways said:
yeah...but it gives ppl shit to do (lab workers) and typically the insurance pays for it so whatever. Also it puts new mothers at ease when it comes back negative :\
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Whatever? When unnecessary tests are ordered, health insurance rates go higher.

I am Canadian so paying for health care out of pocket in the US was something for my bank account to get used to. I have a high deductible plan ($2500) and I am afraid to see the doctor unless absolutely required.

I also work in medicine. I don't order tests unless clinically necessary based on the individual signs, symptoms, and history.

Giving people shit to do is not a good reason.

Reassurance is.
 
I don't think its everywhere in the US that these tests (amnio, CVS) are ordered rutinely for everyone. I worked at a lab a few years ago doing just that and there were criteria for getting the test. I think all women get the blood test done and an ultrasound. Then if there are abnormalities on the ultrasound or the blood test or she is over 35 then an amnio or CVS is ordered. Insurance doesn't just cover these tests just cuz you want them. There has to be a need. I worked for a huge hospital and the workload we had was definitely not all women, just a small percentage and it always states the reason of the test. I don't even remember one instance of there being no reason for the test and the women being less than 35. Insurance or none. Reassurance at age 25 was never reason enough to get the test as it costs a lot. A monthly paycheck for some people if it got complicated.

Might be different in other places, but this unnecessary ordering definitely didn't happen there and it is a major provider in a big city. Amnio capable labs are not in every hospital, just major university hospitals, so few in every city. So we did most of our cities amnios and I didn't see this wasteful ordering. Maybe it changed in the last few years.

I know at least Blue Cross Blue Shield plan I have wouldn't pay for this. It's an expensive good plan that my SO gets from work. At 27, with normal blood test and normal U/S I don't qualify. I'm pregnant now. Not that I would want the test. It would show up on the U/S or blood test if there were any abnormalities.
 
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