2026
When is the best time to have your nuchal translucency scan?
Category (s):
Pregnancy
Welcome
From the moment your pregnancy test comes back positive, it's completely understandable to want, and sometimes even need, to see your baby, to take it in and, above all, to make the good news feel real!
Officially, you can have your nuchal translucency ultrasound starting at 11 weeks and 3 days of pregnancy. Sometimes patients who aren't quite there yet call us, thrilled, prescription in hand, asking for the earliest available time slot, they're that eager to see their baby on screen for the very first time!
While wanting to move your nuchal translucency ultrasound up is understandable and may feel exciting, it's important to keep in mind that doing so could compromise image quality, because the embryo is at a less advanced stage of development. Image quality and how well structures can be seen improve steadily with the embryo's gestational age.
Since the first trimester is a meaningful window for detecting 50 to 70% of major malformations early, it is recommended to have the scan at 12 and a half weeks at the earliest, in order to optimize the quality of the ultrasound and make sure you get the best possible images.
The quality of the exam is your choice! If you're unsure about your dates, you can ask your health care professional for a dating scan (if they don't feel it's warranted, let them know you'd like to have it done privately) so you can better pinpoint the best timing for your following exams.
To illustrate the difference, a comparison of an embryo one week apart is provided below, using the same machine, the same probe and the same position, the only variable being when the ultrasound was done.
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