Question for those of you who had twin pregnancies. My friend is pregnant with twins and the doctor is concerned that one of the fetuses may have down syndrome. Her HCG levels are higher than they should be. Has anyone received these types of results before, but had two babies without Down's? Did you choose to have an amnio or wait until they were born? Were you concerned about the risk of the amnio to the fetuses?
Please help with any advice and experience.
Thanks!
HCG is the hormone that causes a posative pregnancy test. If you are pregnant with twins, your HCG should be a little higher.
I didn' t have twins but I did opt for amnio. Im my case there was nothing wrong thank goodness. I have never regretted the decision one bit. If there were something wrong with my child I'd want to know about it and prepare for it. Being surprised would be even more awful emotionally and leave me scrambling to find the specialists and services I need. In addition, if you get a negative result, knowing there is very little chance of anything being wrong is very reassuring. If she opts to do the amnio just be sure she is sent to a specialist who does this procedure every day. Good luck to her.
I had twins. My first pregnancy test was positive at what I later found out was only 4 - 5 weeks gestation. This was because there were two babies with two placentas producing DOUBLE the standard levels of HCG. My doctor never mentioned any concern that high levels of HCG could mean Downs Syndrome.
I had twins and I recall having high HCG levels but it was just because there were twins. The doctors never mentioned anything about downs.
I had really really high HCG levels and the PA told me that she thought there were twins. Of course I went on the internet and one site said high HCG levels could mean downs. Turns out, there were twins to begin with, but by the time I had the ultrasound one had faded. I still was paranoid about the Downs and all the doctors, and the perinatologist that runs the place that does the sonograms, said that there is no connection between high HcG levels and downs syndrome. High levels could mean twins, or it could mean nothing at all. My baby did not have downs. I had a test done at 11 weeks. I can't remember what it was called, but they did blood work, and then a sonogram and ran the numbers in the blood work with the measurements of the baby's neck. Since there was no risk, I did not have any additional testing.
