I haven’t been posting very frequently lately, but I have been visiting this board often since just after my 4 1/2 yr old son (CAH SW) was born. I recently heard about a test that I thought some of you may be interested in.

I am 11 weeks pregnant (Probably a big surprise to anyone who was part of the "should we have another" postings a couple of years ago. I can’t believe it myself, but we decided to do this again!)

Earlier this week I went in for a CVS and was surprised, and extremely disappointed, to hear that we would have to wait - not only the 7-10 days I expected for the results from Cornell - but also an additional 7-10 days while the cells were "cultured?" before they could even be sent to Cornell. I was just devastated thinking of waiting nearly 20 more days for test results.

We ended up being incredibly fortunate. There is a test called FISH (Flourescence In Situ Hybridization) that can be completed in 24-48 hours. It can determine the sex of the baby, along with some other things like Downs. However, there are many limits on what it can test for - it can’t test for CAH. I don’t think every lab can do it. (We are lucky to live in a large metro area with great hospitals. ) Also, the test can only be done on some samples. I think they have to be large enough not to compromise the amount the need for the more complete tests done by Cornell.

So, in sum, FISH isn’t a perfect test, and it can’t help everyone, but for us it was wonderful! We found out within 24 hours that we are having a boy. This just thrills us, and it eliminates any dex. issues. We’ll find out the CAH status in a couple of weeks.

Hope this helps someone.

 

-Chris