Around ten weeks of pregnancy, your care provider will offer you a noninvasive prenatal screen. This screen is commonly known as noninvasive prenatal testing.
You’ll gain insights into your baby's development – including information about the chance of a chromosome condition like Down syndrome.
Unfortunately, when you're plus size, there’s a higher rate of a test failure and coming back with “no result.”
Thankfully, Myriad Women's Health, the sponsor of this article, has developed the Myriad Prequel Prenatal Screen. This is a noninvasive prenatal screen that demonstrates highly accurate results for all patient types, regardless of BMI, race or ethnicity.
I can't wait to tell you all about it, but first, let me address some of the most commonly asked questions about getting a noninvasive prenatal screen!
Getting A Noninvasive Prenatal Screen
1. What type of test is a noninvasive prenatal screen?
Everything feels pretty invasive when you're pregnant. Thankfully, this test lives up to its name as it's a simple blood test.
This blood test analyzes DNA fragments from your pregnancy that are floating in your bloodstream. Pretty cool, right?!
What’s even cooler is all the information these little DNA fragments will tell you about your baby.
2. What will I learn from having a noninvasive prenatal screen?
About a week following your blood draw, you should get the results from your screen.
A noninvasive prenatal screen determines your baby's chance of having a chromosome abnormality associated with certain genetic conditions.
Remember back to health class when you learned about chromosomes?
If you need a refresher, most babies get 23 chromosomes from each parent for a total of 46. Some babies have an extra chromosome, and this is called a trisomy. When this happens, children can have health issues like physical and/or intellectual disabilities. An example of a trisomy is Down syndrome.
This screening looks for common trisomies and you also have the option of looking to see if certain pieces of chromosomes are missing (microdeletions). In addition, this screen looks beyond the common chromosomes called expanded aneuploidy analysis.
Lastly, this screen can identify the sex chromosomes for male (XY) and female (XX) along with if your baby has the right amount of sex chromosomes.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, please know that most people get reassuring results that their pregnancy is low risk for these chromosome differences.
If something does standout during your screen, your care provider will review everything with you and recommend the next steps. Most often, that's having a diagnostic procedure like amniocentesis or CVS.
By having the information a noninvasive prenatal screen provides, you can make informed decisions.
For example, you might consider selecting a different medical facility for your birth specializing in supporting newborns with chromosome conditions.
3. How is getting noninvasive prenatal screen different when you're plus size?
When you're plus size, there can be a decreased amount of DNA fragments in your blood, and because of this, your test results might show up as “no result.”
If this happens, you'll need to have another test or a more invasive procedure, and that can be disappointing.
Some providers recommend testing a little later on in your pregnancy to increase the odds of getting accurate results.
4. What makes the Myriad Prequel Prenatal Screen standout?
Myriad's Noninvasive Prenatal Screen, Prequel with AMPLIFY technology, has the lowest test failure rate in the industry! You'll receive reliable results regardless of your weight, age, carrying twins, or if you conceived via IVF.
Myriad prides itself on providing a human understanding. Their mission is to ensure every woman has access to transformative genetic insights. This means they go above and beyond by offering on-demand consults with Patient Educators, who are board-certified genetic counselors to answer questions you may have about your test.
Myriad Women's Health is in-network with most major insurance plans. They also have financial assistance and payment plans available if you have a high-deductible insurance plan.
When your care provider talks to you about doing your noninvasive prenatal screen, ask them about Myriad Prequel Prenatal Screen.
Learn even more by watching this insightful video.
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