[lex1078]

Tomorrow we have an appt with the Genetics Counselor and I was wondering what happens during these appts? I'm a bit nervous about going but excited at the same time. How long does it take to get results?




UPDATE:
So that appt was pretty useless to me. Basically she told us what causes trisomy and that it wasn't either of our faults. She did mention however, that having a trisomy loss does increase your chances of another loss by 1%. Which is still pretty low, but I thought it was the other way around. She mentioned a few blood tests that I need to look into, being of the Italian descent, for Mediterranean anemia and some hemoglobin one. It should have been run when I was pregnant with the girls, so I have to go back to that Dr. and get those papers.

She also had the main Dr. come in and explain to us that since there is really no medical history, that we should be ok and that doing IVF w/ PGD(S) is a great idea and is probably the best route for us.

No blood was drawn and we were sent on our way.

Nothing exciting at all. Onto our IVF w/ PGD(S) consult for Friday. Can't wait for that one!!

[mmllhh]

I have no idea steph, i just wanted to wish you luck. Hope that you get fabulous answers.

[RinkMom]

When we did ours, it was before we started to TTC at all, because of family history of many genetic disorders. Basically, they asked about our family history, origins etc. There were no actual physical tests done. This was before our losses so I don't know what they would have done differently.

An interesting tidbit is that I had a sibling who was born still at 34 weeks. I knew about him but my mom was never told the cause of death. It was thru my investigation that they pulled the autopsy report and found out he had spina bifida and encephalitis. I had to tell my mom 30 years after her loss why her baby had passed.

Good luck. I hope you get some answers.

[mlyster]

Steph I answered this in TTCMA too but thought I would copy my answer here.

I can give you my experience with genetics counselling but will have to let the other ladies give you their answers to the rest of the questions.

My appointment with the genetics counsellor was after 4 consecutive miscarriages. We met with him in his office and he reviewed our file and went through all the possible causes for our miscarriages (all of which had been ruled out but he went through them in much greater detail than anyone else we had seen). Then he explained what they would test genetically. We went to the lab and had blood drawn and he explained that they would look at each pair of chromosomes to ensure their were no translocations. He said sometimes in a healthy person there can be a piece of one chromosome switched with another. ( ex. say aaa aaa is one chromosome and bbb bbb is another. in a balanced translocation you would have baa aaa and abb bbb instead.)

That was the end of the meeting. They did the blood work and are still looking at our genetics (I was told it could take 6-8 months here). He did tell us he would bring us back in for another appointment when the results were back and we would discuss the results.

I hope things go well for you with your genetics counsellor and I am sure your timing will be much shorter. I have heard elsewhere it is only a 4-6 week look at the chromosomes.

[Kary♥RN]

We met with one during our RE eval... it was a very quick introduction, They had already looked over our questionare.. and were told that they were going to draw blood from both DH and I, ...... this is where the fighting came with the insurance company. DH blood work was over 8,600 dollars!!! Mine was covered due to being listed as "multiple pregnancy loss" DH was listed under "infertility". Our insurance dosen't cover "infertility".... We finally got it paid 100%. We got a phone call from the Genetic Counselor saying that our blood work came back chromosmally ok.

GOOD LUCK!

[martilynne]

We met with a genetic counselor last time I was pregnant and we got 1:<5 chance of trisomy 13 or 18 on the first trimester ultra-screen. We had already had our chromosomes tested due to recurrent miscarriage so there was no blood work done besides the CVS I had to rule out trisomy 13 and 18. We went over our family histories of all sorts of things ranging from stillbirth, m/c, heath issues, causes of death, and ethnic backgrounds. She also took some time to describe in detail how the CVS would be done and that doctor's miscarriage stats. I don't know why they had us go through that since our chromosomes are normal (no balanced translocations) and trisomys 13 and 18 are not genetic. I do feel better know that we've had it done and insurance covered all but $17.

[lex1078]

It should be an interesting appt tomorrow then if they are going to ask all of this history information. I know a lot of my families history, but not much of DH's. I'm not so worried about the insurance part yet, but if it's as expensive as Kary's DH's then we're in trouble. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks for all the info ladies.

[MeganMomof5]

I don't know anything about it Steph, but I wanted to wish you luck!!!! I hope you guys get some answers