I have 2 major questions about pregnancy:

1.
Does anyone know a source for finding a good doctor/ hospital, or have experience in Asia or even Australia for CVS or amnio? Where I am I have not heard good reviews for doctors' skill and experiences with CVS and amnio testing.
I prefer not to travel, I really don't want to travel, because that is hard enough on the body, but I'm sketchy of the bad reviews here in Japan, and will travel if I must.
There is no contact here for HD, at all, so that alone leaves me to wonder.

2.
New articles I've found for DNA testing, free-cell DNA is less invasive than the above 2 tests, but not as accurate.
Does anyone know / had experience with this?

Thanks!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2013 05:41PM by jennie1977.

Unlikely to find that info easily for japan

I'm surprised no one here has heard of Free-Cell DNA testing All I've read is that this test for Downs Syndrome and possible other genetic birth defects, but nothing HD specific. It's claiming to be less invasive than cvs and amnio...

Thank you for your response derrens, and you are very right, and my location is something I have to deal with in itself!

Actually, my question wasn't necessarily Japan specific, but of types of testing, difficulty levels and capabilities of doctors.

My question about Free-Cell DNA and the new testing procedure, well, I want to know if anyone with experience in HD, if anyone has
*tried this testing
*heard any information about it
*recommend it, or
*think against it

My other question regarding worldwide clinics is mostly:
Is CVS and AMNIO testing something that every doctor/ hospital can do, or should I be seeking out the experts?

For those who have gone through it in America, Did you seek out the best hospital with the top doctors with the best reputations, or did you just choose who and where was closest you?

I wish I could help you, but I know nothing about this. I thought I'd make a post to bump this back up to the top in hopes someone else will have some info.

hey jennie!

So we did IVF with PGD so our needs were more of a doublecheck than a first pass, but this is what was true for us in the US:

FREE CELL
Right now free cell DNA is only used for trisomy detection (downs syndrome, etc). there are no services offering to isolate and sequence fetal DNA for those purposes. its just a blood test, simple.

CVS
We had CVS as a doublecheck, but it took our genetic counselor a long time to figure out where to send the sample for checking. for me, the CVS procedure was kind of arduous, to be honest. but for others its a piece of cake. i think its about the position of the placental material. definitely there are people who are more or less experienced, so i would find a doc that comes recommended for this one. This comes with a larger risk of miscarriage than ammio. Id seek an expert here.

AMMIO
Ive never had this. From what I understand the procedure is very safe, and the miscarriage risk is small with an experienced provider (maybe 1%). Every hospital offers it I bet. The thing about it is that you need to wait til 18-20 weeks or something, and for me, so the knowledge may not be something I could bring myself to act on. Obviously thats my opinion, and I respect others' different opinions.

Hopefully this is helpful.

I looked into cell free testing and it looks like testing for HD has only been done experimentally and isn't available commercially, at least in the US. Not sure about Australia, but I reckon it's the same all over. It did seem to be very accurate according to the study I read, especially if the female wasn't the carrier, so hopefully within a few years we will see it commercially available. After doing tons of research, I decided on CVS because it can be done earlier, thus making termination earlier if a positive result. I'll let you know in two weeks how it feels, but apparently it's not terrible.

Eve - Thanks for posting and bringing this thread to the top! It worked! And hopefully it will be a benefit to others reading as well.

Noreaster - I agree with you about both CVS and Amnio...although amnio has been being done for years, I feel the same about waiting that long...and yes, it looks like there are more and more dr.s with experience with CVS, although it does in fact (so I've been learning) require a little bit of research!

Jam - Thank you for telling me what you've found! And good luck with the CVS. After reading more, it looks like this is a good way to go, mostly because it's sooner, and because it's being done more and more so doctors are getting more experience and skilled. You'll be fine! Please let us know how it goes.