TRANSCRIPT
All right. So, let’s go back to this 35 question because people have used this for a long time as being a cutoff, saying I’m high risk versus low risk cause I’m over 35 versus under, yet the rate is just going up. So why would we put a cutoff at 35? It has to do with “yes or no” testing. And we’re going to talk about this in a minute, but a yes or no test that can tell whether or not the baby’s chromosomes are normal is an amniocentesis. Okay and we’ll come back to that and describe it in a minute. But it has some risks because it’s invasive, right? It’s the needle going into the womb and taking a little bit of fluid and then growing cells from the baby.
Now there’s a chance of causing a miscarriage by doing that test. And for years and years, we’ve said the chance of causing a miscarriage from an amniocentesis is somewhere around one in 250 or one in 300. And kind of an average number in there is one in 270. And that’s what we’ve said for years. Okay. So if that line represents the risk of miscarriage, no matter what age the mother is, based on an amniocentesis. You see that line? And this line represents the risk or the chances of miscarriage going up. Do you see where they cross? 35. They cross at 35. So, who is in their mid-20s? Any of my guests? Sgt Jones, you look like you’re in the mid-20s, right? It’s a terrible thing to guess a woman’s age, right? But if I told you that you were high risk for a chromosome problem, would that make you nervous? Yes. So if I make you nervous, you’re 25 and say you’re high risk and I make you nervous, and if I do an amniocentesis because you’re nervous and you’ve got to know, am I more likely to cause a problem or find a problem? I’m more likely to cause one, because the risk of the amniocentesis is greater than your risk at 25. It’s only when you get to 35 or beyond that the chances of finding a problem are greater than the chances of causing one. Does that make sense? Yeah. So that’s why we say high risk, because your risk is really higher than the risk of the amnio.