Recommended Down Syndrome Screening for Pregnant Women of all Ages

Pregnant women have more screening options With these new guidelines, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is enhancing a woman’s ability to make the choice if she wants to have tests performed to give more information on... More

Pregnant women have more screening options With these new guidelines, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is enhancing a woman’s ability to make the choice if she wants to have tests performed to give more information on the potential for Down syndrome. Advances in the technology of screening processes have allowed physicians to take a woman from an age-based population risk of having a baby with a chromosomal abnormality to an individual risk. As a result of the lessinvasive screening options, any pregnant woman can have one or more of several screening tests. History of testing In the U. S. , amniocentesis became a common procedure in the early 1970s for women over the age of 35. CVS followed and became common in the 1980s. Physicians chose age 35 to talk to women about amniocentesis or CVS because they believed age 35 was where the risk “Advances in the technology of screening processes have allowed physicians to ta Less