Is anyone else not getting genetic testing done?

Question

No judgement but I just don’t feel like it’s completely necessary for myself but it seems that everyone does take it. Curious to see if anyone else hasn’t gotten it done?

Answer

I'm not doing it. I have a history of false positives on tests, and I'm a HUGE worrier. It would just stress me out. If something of concern comes up on an ultrasound I might reconsider, but otherwise nope. I wouldn't terminate a pregnancy, so not worth it to me. I know so many people that have been told they are high risk only to have perfectly healthy babies too.

Answer

It’s not invasive so why not. There’s nothing wrong with preparation either.

Answer

I did it for two reasons— because I already have a special needs daughter (adopted from foster care) and I wanted to be as prepared as possible if we were bringing another special needs kiddo into our world (because it would take a lot more of our time away from her needs) and I wanted to protect her a bit if it was one of the trisomies that has fatal implications. She doesn’t know about the pregnancy yet, and she won’t know for a while, that way if something goes wrong or the fetus is incompatible with life, she wouldn’t have to experience another loss. 
The second reason is that we are trying for a home birth, so If there was a genetic complication may need specialized care at birth, that may change our plans. (I don’t know much about Down’s syndrome but I think there’s sometimes a related cardiac issue?) 
And... I really wanted to find out the sex! So far, we have 100% negative genetic testing for our girl.

Answer

I don’t because I don’t care about the results, and sometimes the results are wrong so you end up worrying about nothing.

Answer

I asked my doctor if he thought I needed it (31; healthy; one prior loss at 8 weeks). He was like "If you want." It was frustrating because I was asking for his professional opinion! I was nervous after that and tried to schedule it. But the hospital that does the specialized testing was like "why is he having you do this? History of genetic issues? Anything?" and when I told her no - she said my risk is so low that it's not worth the cost. So, I opted out! Of course it'd be nice to know 100% that everything is good. But I have no reason to believe anything is wrong. They will search for issues at the anatomy scan.

Answer

Totally up to you but there is nothing wrong with being prepared if there is something wrong. It’s not just about whether you would terminate or not. 
I see people talking about false positives and that can be true. The rate of false positives is higher with the sex chromosome issues than with the trisomy ones. If you were to get a positive result, they offer further testing like a CVS or amniocentesis which would tell you for sure.

Answer

My husband advocated to have the genetic testing after our OB stated it was an option. I was indifferent but anxious for the possibility of bad news leaning towards not having it done but ultimately decided to do it. My brother convinced me when I told him I was avoiding it because I didn't want to get any bad news by saying "better to know now than when you have a newborn in your arms." Just took my blood test a few days ago and putting my faith in God all will be well. I am excited to know the gender early but just the thought of getting a high risk stresses me out. I can see the benefits of both options.

Answer

I’m doing it for the gender results!

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I don’t care about the results tbh, I did it with both pregnancy’s mostly for the extra ultrasound as my on only offers ultrasounds for dating scan at 8ish weeks and anatomy scan. So for genetic testing I get an extra one at 12 weeks plus blood work.

Answer

I had it done with my first because it was free (I was on state insurance back then, and everything was included). But I remember them saying that we aren’t carriers for certain things. And this time, since I’m on private insurance, it’s not fully covered and I don’t feel the need to fork out the extra money.  Plus I was stressed out for 2 weeks waiting for those results. I’d rather just do whatever my doctor feels necessary and let that be that.

Is anyone else not getting genetic testing done?

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