Quad Screen?

I wanted to pose this question to those of you who are moms already and have been through pregnancy before.

Today at my 15+5 appointment my doctor offered to do the quad screen test. She kind of made it sound like since my 1st trimester screening came back normal that it was no big deal. I almost felt put on the spot since I didn't know that they'd offer it to me and I declined.

I'm sure everything is fine - I'm 28, DH is 30, we're both healthy, no chromosome disorders or spinal disorders on either side of our family and I've religiously taken my folic acid and DHA since long before my BFP and every day since. Just looking for some reassurance or if you'd recommend calling them and telling them I've decided to go ahead with it? (Some of you in June-Aug DD already read this and I thank you for your responses! [emoji4])


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Nobody has a genetic tie to what some of what the quad screen looks for. Nobody is a carrier of Down Syndrome. It is like lightning striking. Most babies are born to women under 35 that have Down Syndrome.

It is about being prepared and informed. I understand that people would never choose to abort based on finding out they are carrying a child with a genetic issue but there is something to be said about the power of information. I'm all for taking advantage of modern medicine and knowing what is going on with my body. I can tell you that most moms that have a baby born with a genetic issue have no family history whatsoever.

So I'm feeling I should go ahead and call and request it before 20 weeks. Thanks for letting me know that info nuthin, everywhere I looked online said it's recommended more for women over the age of 35 and with a history or family history.


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Taytum if it troubles u then u should get it.

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Genetic anomalies r at times sporadic which means can happen to ppl least expected to have them based on risks etc

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In my opinion, DON'T DO the triple/quad screen. There is absolutely NO reason for you to do it at 28 and the stuff they test for on that is all (according to my doctor) visible on ultrasound. The problem is all the false positives with the screening. It's ridiculously high and people get extremely upset over it and have to go on to have amnio/CVS tests (which you're out of the window of being able to have CVS, I believe) which is a risk to the pregnancy itself. I know of probably 300-500 false positives on those tests by this point and none of them ever had any issue. The people who did have issues with their pregnancy were always diagnosed by ultrasound anyway and not the testing.

I do agree with what nuthin says though in that your overall health and family history doesn't tell you a whole lot because when the chromosomal stuff strikes, it's nearly always either age related (which that is on your side) or just out of thin air, like a lightning strike. And yes also true that women under 35 can and do have babies with issues including Down's (it's acutally more common than in older women, but that is only because so many older women do have higher level testing done like amnio and then have medical termination) It's just that I don't think that this is the test to have. They just aren't good tests and if your ultrasound is clear, and your doctor doesn't think you need it, I wouldn't do it because the risks of the false positive are so high.

if you want to have testing done, I recommend the Nifty-Nip-T type tests instead. Much more reliable and they test for more stuff, too. Wishing you well.

^^agree with Atomic on this one. I did it with DS2 and I had a false positive for downs. I was a nervous wreck until the next US when it was confirmed that he was not downs.

I would do the NIPT that Atomic mentioned, aka. MateniT21, Harmony, etc. These tests are much more reliable and have a much lower false positive rate than the Quad screening. A good doctor can and should be able to assess your risk through your NT Ultrasound, which yours did.

It's so hard when you're pregnant to know exactly what to do, especially when it's your first baby. Trust your instincts and don't ever do anything based out of fear. Fear is never a good motivator that ever has a good outcome [emoji6]!


DS1[emoji125]🏼, DS2[emoji577], DS3[emoji170][emoji577][emoji843][emoji602][emoji170] Jan. '16 I'll sway for a DD[emoji166][emoji171][emoji166] for my DH!!

It's funny because just since I've been having kids - with my first two they didn't even DO ultrasounds unless they thought something was wrong (and this is at a major metropolitan hospital, not a small town joint or anything.) It wasn't something that everyone or even MOST people did. We are used to having test after test after test and it feels almost scary not to have them all done, but only a couple decades ago they never did any of it. Sometimes ignorance is bliss LOL. Now if something was really wrong, of course you'd want to know, but you already have the ultrasound testing which can detect the same things the triple/quad checks for anyway. There are like 11 of these things called "soft markers" and if your baby has none of them that's a pretty good sign. Things can still go wrong that aren't visible but those things aren't detected on triple/quad anyway.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for saving my sanity once again. I feel like things looked good at our NT scan, blood work all came back negative and I was just enjoying pregnancy until this came up. Then I worried that quad would look for something NT didn't and I'd done a disservice to my baby and me if something was wrong and we couldn't prepare. I don't really know why I worry; what will be will be, regardless of the test. My doctor also made it sound like my NT scan and bw all came back negative and they'd check spine and everything else at my next u/s anyway so no need to. I should have just stuck with my original gut instinct to pass on it and not second guess it.

Just going to enjoy the ride and count down the day until next ultrasound! [emoji4]


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I have 5 children and this was my first getting the genetic testing but I only did it because it told gender at 11 weeks which I still have t looked at. Some op said women would never abort but many women do. Sadly these test are not always accurate. Then some say oh the amnio is accurate. Then you could be risking your perfectly healthy child's life to get that answer. Most people get 20 week us and that would catch many things also w/o the sorry of genetic testing.

Atomic like you big city and the nicest hospital 16 years ago and already had the labor/delivery/pp suite w pullout sofa for dh and just big beautiful room. No ultrasound was even offered. Of course that was 99 so by 5 years later the game had changed lol. I'm still old school:)