Oversold prenatal tests leading to abortions - Metro - The Boston Globe
i just read this this morning. I think this should be read by the OBs!! I think they are the ones selling the product!!! who educates the pregnant women...the drs. don't oversell these screens. and don't mention 99% accuracy. bc the general public wont think..."99% in accuracy for a SCREEN"
this overzealous perinatalogist told me I had this condition. I said no I didn't. he went above and beyond to try to convince me. I argued. then I found paperwork to prove him wrong and he always happened to not be available for appointments for me again. imagine that.
a lot of those BLOOD tests are just SCREENS. which at 1st I never understood. what are you measuring in my bodily fluids and what information are you adding to it that this is just a SCREEN and not a diagnostic? ppl think, if you take my blood, that's a diagnostic. I ask many questions always and annoy the hell out of very important and busy drs only to find some of these new fangled ideas that they are coming up with are pointless. which is why I refused some of those SCREENs during my last pregnancy. especially as my maternal age increased and my chances of having a baby with problems increased as well. all itd make me do is cry. what kind of screen is that? and I even asked my dr, why do you even offer these SCREENS what's the point? to give us a choice to abort? she said to prepare. I said you can never prepare for a newborn with a condition. you wont ever know how "bad" it will be until they are born or enter school. I mean, its not like like finding out its a boy or girl and "preparing" with blue or pink outfits. I cant go out and buy medical equipment.
drs can be wrong. unfortunately we have to be our own care providers these days.
sorry, things like this really bother me.
Thanks for posting this - I had looked into this before and the "99%" is NOT for all genetic conditions. Some results are less reliable than others and even 99% is going to = some false pos results.
They're still a heck of a lot better than the NT scan plus bloodwork which has also caused tons of unneccesary terminations! Those are simply terrible tests.
I do not believe the tests are "unregulated and oversold" though. I hate articles like this where the tests are made to look bad (they aren't) and the women are made to look entirely crazy, while the doctors are like these calm voices of reason - it is the doctor's JOB to explain to the patients how all this works and not go along with people terminating pregnancies based on anything but the best of the best.
I definitely think this is an exception to normal. Most normal people would have an amino to confirm before terminating so keep that in mind.
Yes PLEASE have amnio or CVS before ever terminating!!! :)
I do also think authors of such articles add drama to get the desired effect (i.e. Mine up there!)
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And I also agree MOST women and not the majority DO double triple check.
But there still are very over confident Drs that rely heavily on labs only.