NIPT Got The Gender of my Baby Wrong

After I found out I was pregnant after IVF, I was excited for a lot of things. We were finally pregnant! We were gonna have a baby! The second immediate thought that just about every pregnant woman thinks about is “what am I having?”

If you follow me on Instagram or YouTube, I’ve been documenting just about everything in this pregnancy. Including our recent Gender Reveal.

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What is NIPT?

NIPT is a prenatal screening, which looks at DNA from your placenta in a sample of your blood to identify whether you’re at increased risk of giving birth to a child with a genetic disorder such as any of the Trisomys or Down Syndrome.

One of the benefits of this screening is that it can tell you the sex of your baby based on which chromosomes are found in the DNA sample.

XX = Girl
XY = Boy

The test can be performed as early as 9 weeks gestation.

How We Found Out The Gender

I was roughly 10+6 weeks pregnant when I went in for my NIPT. My OBGYN offered this test and I immediately scheduled it. We did not do genetic testing on our only embryo during IVF, so finding out if our baby was genetically normal was on my priority list. Finding out the gender was a bonus!

Getting the results of the test was a long wait – it felt like forever! At first the lab promised results within 7-10 business days, but it ended up actually taking them 15 business days to get back to me with the results!

Thankfully, everything came back normal and that we were having a GIRL.

Gender Reveal

Yep… we even had a gender reveal party for our Girl. The family was so excited and we were so excited to share the news with everyone. My husband was beyond thrilled as he has always said he would love to have a Girl. Obviously, any baby for us will be loved and adored.

Getting a 16 Week Ultrasound

Around 16 weeks, I was feeling anxious about our baby. I was in the “quiet” weeks of pregnancy. I wasn’t feeling any symptoms, and it was definitely too early to feel any fetal movement.

I ended up finding a private ultrasound really close to my house and booked an ultrasound for peace of mind.

The ultrasound package that I purchased came with a “gender sneak peek”. Even though I knew the gender via NIPT blood, I said “go ahead” anyway. What we saw on the screen was anything but “girl parts”.

The ultrasound technician was giddy and wrote on the screen “BOY!” and said congratulations. I laid on the table feeling absolutely stunned and confused. How could the NIPT be wrong?

Getting Answers About NIPT

Obviously, we were shocked and confused. A blood test that promises to be over 99% accurate was incorrect for us?

I ended up calling the lab who did the test to ask questions. I spoke with a genetic counselor who was just as stunned.

They never gave me a definite answer for the incorrect result. She gave me her “best guess” and that was that there wasn’t enough Y Chromosome present at the time of blood sample. Again, I never got a definite answer – just her best guess. Which made me question if there was human error somewhere down the line… but they’d never admit to it.

Anatomy Scan Results

We had our 20-week anatomy scan a few weeks later and got the ultimate confirmation. Baby is definitely a BOY!

Baby had all working parts. 3-Vessel Cord, all heart chambers, kidneys, brain function, and fingers and toes! We’re so in love with our baby! Check out our vlog to see our 20-week ultrasound pictures.

Adjusting to the News

It was a time of shock and confusion for a short period of time. We went from calling our baby by the girl name we chose, buying her clothes, etc… to a whole new baby in one fell swoop!

We’re obviously super excited for our baby and cannot wait to meet our son!

The most important thing is that they are healthy and well. That’s all we can ask for.

In Conclusion

I don’t want to scare anyone into not doing the NIPT genetic testing. It is a good test – but it can be unreliable for the gender screening! It had to be wrong for someone… why not ME!

The test is ultra sensitive in detecting risk of Down Syndrome. That is what my OBGYN told me, however. So keep that in mind.