TempoLife › Fonctions › Health screening by age: which test and when › antenatal
Screening in pregnancy
An early dating scan, a chromosome screening test, and a detailed anomaly scan around twenty weeks. All of it is offered rather than required, and understanding what each one answers is what makes the choice a real one.
This page describes screening programmes; it is not a diagnosis, not a personal risk assessment and not a substitute for your own health service. Age bands are set nationally and change — the invitation you receive, and the body named on your country page, outrank anything written here. Screening is for people without symptoms: a new lump, blood you can see, a mole that has changed, unexplained weight loss or a sudden change in vision or hearing needs a clinician now, whatever a recent screening result said.
Where it is organised
Nowhere in this region as an invitation programme. That is a decision rather than an oversight, and the section below explains the reasoning. It also means nothing will arrive in the post: if this is something you want checked, you have to ask for it.
Three different questions
It helps enormously to separate what each part of pregnancy screening is asking. The early scan asks how far along the pregnancy is and how many babies there are — it also dates everything that follows, which is why it matters even to people who want no other screening. The chromosome screen asks how likely it is that this baby has a chromosomal condition such as Down syndrome; it produces a probability, not an answer. The mid-pregnancy scan asks whether the baby’s anatomy is developing normally, looking at the brain, heart, spine, abdominal wall, kidneys and limbs. Conflating the three is the commonest source of distress in the whole area.
How it is organised here
Finland writes the schedule into the same screening decree that governs mammography: an early general ultrasound at 10+0 to 13+6 weeks, chromosomal screening, and an ultrasound for serious structural anomalies at 18+0 to 21+6 weeks or after week 24. The other countries in the region offer a comparable package through antenatal care, with local differences in whether the combined test or a cell-free DNA blood test is the first-line chromosome screen and in who pays for the latter. Your own midwife or antenatal clinic is the authority on which version you are being offered.
What a "risk" result actually is
The combined test puts together the nuchal translucency measured on the scan, two hormones in the mother’s blood and the mother’s age, and returns a probability — one in 250, one in 4 000. It is a screening result, and a high-probability result is not a diagnosis. Cell-free DNA testing, where offered, is much more accurate but is still a screening test, not a diagnostic one. Confirmation means chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis, which carry a small procedure-related risk of miscarriage. That chain of decisions is why it is worth deciding before the blood is taken what you would want to know and what you would do with it.
The right to decline, and the right to think
Every part of this is offered, not imposed, and declining any of it is a legitimate choice that antenatal services in this region are used to supporting. Some parents want maximum information; some want the anomaly scan because it can change how and where a baby is delivered, but not the chromosome screen; some want none. All three are coherent positions. What is not helpful is arriving at a scan having never considered the question, which is how people end up making a decision in a corridor with a result they did not expect.
Sources: Valtioneuvoston asetus seulonnoista 339/2011 (Finlex) — pregnancy screening timings · Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland — screening · checked 2026-09-07
Questions fréquentes
Is pregnancy screening compulsory?
No. Every element is offered and any part of it can be declined without affecting the rest of your antenatal care. It is worth deciding in advance what you would want to know, because the decisions arrive quickly once a result does.
What is the difference between the early scan and the anomaly scan?
The early scan, at around 10 to 14 weeks, dates the pregnancy and counts the babies. The anomaly scan, at around 18 to 22 weeks, examines the baby’s anatomy — brain, heart, spine, abdominal wall, kidneys and limbs — for structural problems.
Does a high-risk chromosome result mean my baby has Down syndrome?
No. The combined test returns a probability, not a diagnosis, and most high-probability results are followed by a normal baby. Confirmation requires a diagnostic test — chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis — which carries a small risk of miscarriage.
Can I have the anomaly scan but not the chromosome screening?
Yes, and it is a common choice. The scan can change where and how a baby is delivered even when no chromosome information is wanted. Antenatal services in this region are used to supporting a mixed choice.
The rest of the surface
Breast cancer screening (mammography)
An X-ray of each breast, read by two radiologists, repeated every two years across a band of ages that starts at 40 in Sweden and 50 almost everywhere else. What it finds, what it misses and what a call-back means.
Cervical screening (HPV test)
Almost every country in the region has switched from looking for abnormal cells to looking for the virus that causes them. The test is better, so the gap between tests is longer — and in several countries you can now take the sample yourself.
Bowel cancer screening (stool test)
A sample from one bowel movement, taken at home and posted. It is the only screening programme in the region that routinely prevents cancers rather than only finding them early — because the follow-up removes the polyp.
Prostate screening (PSA)
Latvia and Lithuania fund PSA testing for men in their fifties and sixties. Sweden assessed the same evidence and recommends against an organised programme. Here is what the trials actually found.
Lung cancer screening (low-dose CT)
The trials are positive and the European recommendation asks countries to build programmes stepwise. In this region it is still pilots rather than invitations — but the eligibility rule is worth knowing.
What screening can and cannot do
Overdiagnosis, false positives, interval cases and lead-time bias — the four ideas behind every disagreement between countries.
All 27 screening pagesIf the result is not normal
The record that makes the appointment shorter
TempoLife keeps weight, blood pressure, sleep and symptoms in one place, so the questions you get asked at a screening appointment already have answers.