Who has had a CVS?

[Hobbermittens]

I wanted to get a CVS because I am 39, but there is nowhere in my state that does it except someone 7 hours away!! I will be getting a 12 week scan, but I think I would like to have something more concrete saying if there is anything wrong with the baby.

How many of you have had this procedure? I am still a little nervous about the risks of m/c.

[HopeandDreamG]

Hobber- I did. But I'm in ny. It was done bc my 12 week scan results were not good. Baby's neck measurement was fine but my chance of downs was 1 in 9 by the blood test. Had the cvs- doc inserted a needle right into my abdomen while guided by ultrasound. She actually had to insert twice bc she wasn't at a good spot. Thats the only time it hurt. I was told chance of miscarriage was super slim. I was devastated to learn though that the baby did have down syndrome. I decided not to continue with the pregnancy. This was Devastating. I never admitted this even here bc of fear of judgement. I have no regrets but continued heartache. Let me know any questions you have.

[Kitten]

I have also had a CVS but I am in Canada. It was done as a result of my 12 week NT measurement which was quite high. We were given 50/50 odds of our baby having a chromosomal issue and they thought T21 (downs). In my experience, the CVS test itself was like a pap. They inserted the catheter vaginally, guided by u/s . through my cervix in order to get the sample from the placenta. I spotted brown the next day, but I had been spotting off and on through out that pg so I'm not sure if it was due to the CVS or not. The chance of miscarriage I was quoted was 1% but if you have an experienced doctor doing the procedure the rate goes down even more.

Unfortunately our baby had T18 which is incompatible with life and we chose to interrupt the pg. Like HopeandDreamG, I have no regrets, but heartache.

[tinksmagic]

Hobber- I did. But I'm in ny. It was done bc my 12 week scan results were not good. Baby's neck measurement was fine but my chance of downs was 1 in 9 by the blood test. Had the cvs- doc inserted a needle right into my abdomen while guided by ultrasound. She actually had to insert twice bc she wasn't at a good spot. Thats the only time it hurt. I was told chance of miscarriage was super slim. I was devastated to learn though that the baby did have down syndrome. I decided not to continue with the pregnancy. This was Devastating. I never admitted this even here bc of fear of judgement. I have no regrets but continued heartache. Let me know any questions you have.

I've never had to have one of these done; instead we took our chances with a 5 panel probe. Either way it's been the hardest thing to accept when it comes to taking chances. My last pregnancy termed at 9 weeks and I m/c at 12. I'll never know why the baby died as we could only rule out 3 possible defects. Clearly there was something that wasn't tested. We're in the middle of that again. I only did a 5 panel probe again and of course we took the 2 that came back normal (based on only checking 3 chromosomes). Now it appears neither sac is developing into a baby and that was the risk I had to take. I have to fully accept the fact that there may be a chromosome abnormality with both. I don't like it, but I can fully understand your decision. I'm tired of people telling me that the doctors were wrong for other women who went on to have healthy babies... I want MY babies to be healthy!!!!

I wish you the best in your attempt I'm also sick of hearing "well, you ARE 40" plenty of women have healthy babies at 40!!!

Hobbermittens, good luck, I hope everything goes well for you

[Princess of Pink]

I will be having one when I get pregnant!

[atomic sagebrush]

I didn't (would have had to drive to Seattle and stayed overnight) but my doctor is pretty down on them. He says you can see virtually everything that CVS and aminio via ultrasound and that all severe defects are pretty evident even as early as 12 weeks - you can see brain, heart, kidneys, stomach, and that DS is often obvious even at 12 weeks by shape and size of bones. He said that his big fear is people losing a perfectly healthy baby and that it does happen (esp. with CVS) He thinks CVS is better for people who have known devatstating genetic factors like TaySachs and Cystic Fibrosis that will not be obvious via ultrasound.

But just to let you know I would personally choose keep a DS baby anyway (no judgement implied at all, it's just what I would do) so it is more irrelevant to me than it would be for other people in the same boat.

(((hugs H and D, kitten, and tink))))

[Flava]

I did not have a cvs but i had a amnio test with DD3.
(I thought they do the cvs test through the cervix and the amnio through the tummy?)
Anyway you can choose to have the amnio at 12 weeks and they do that most everywhere.

Hope and Kitten -big hugs to you I would do the same thing.

[Foxy]

My last CVS was done by Dr Darryl Maxwell in London. He told me that these days a transabdominal CVS is as safe as an amniocentesis. The mc rate is about 0.5 -1% depending on how much experience the doctor has. The NT test didn't catch our daughters trisomy and that is why we chose to do a cvs with our subsequent pregnancies.

Hope and Kitten - Big hugs. I've been there myself.

[Kitten]

Thanks for the hugs.

tinks - lots of I'm so sorry - sometimes people just don't know what to say, rather than just listen and a simple hug or an I'm sorry, they open their mouth to offer what they feel is helpful, but the wrong thing comes out. I'm tired of hearing "Everything happens for a reason." so I can completely understand.

Flava - depending on where the placenta is located determines whether they go vaginally through the cervix or through the abdomen.

HopesandDreamG - since they originally thought Downs (T21) we were working on that during our discussions that night. We had decided to do the same thing as you. There are just so many other medical issues that go along with Downs. It's not the high functioning people with Downs which is only 1% but the opposite end of the spectrum. The T18 diagnosis came as a surprise to us.

Foxy - I'm so sorry that you had a missed diagnosis. That must have been horrible.

[Hobbermittens]

Thanks for sharing you stories, everyone. I am so sorry H&D, Kitten, Tinks and Foxy--that sounds devastating. Because of my age, I worry about my baby's health. I still haven't decided if I will drive 7 hrs for the CVS. I need to decide soon.