It is now easier than ever for women to test for pregnancy. They can do it at home in the privacy of their bathroom and get the results within five minutes. The results can be up to ninety-nine percent accurate, so there is really no need to call a doctor to do it. However, most women still have concerns or questions even though the tests are easy to perform. Of all the concerns, the most common one is when to test for pregnancy.
Pregnancy tests are intended to measure the Human Chorionic Gonadotropin or HCG levels in a woman’s body. This is a hormone that the placenta produces when a woman gets pregnant. HCG sends signals to the body for it to create other hormones such as progesterone and estrogen, which are important to maintain the pregnancy. The home pregnancy tests will measure these levels in the woman’s urine, as well as the blood. If you want to know when to do the test for pregnancy, you should know that this hormone is not created until a pregnancy is implanted, which can be anywhere from six to twelve days after ovulation.
There are some home pregnancy tests which are more sensitive than others and these are able to detect low HCG levels of 15 mL/U. If you are using one of these tests, you can get results as fast as one to two days before you have a missed period. But, you should know that taking the test this early might not always give result that is accurate. You might have ovulated later than you thought, or it took longer than normal for the pregnancy to implant. This has led to high incidences of false negative results with tests which are taken before a period is due. A miscarriage can also occur before you know that you are pregnant.
Hence, the test might give a positive result and your period will come anyway. This can be devastating emotionally, so you need to consider it seriously when deciding if it’s right time to do a pregnancy test. Due to these factors, many healthcare providers give recommendations for a woman to wait several days to one week after having missed a period.
In concluding, you need to know that a healthcare provider can give pregnancy blood tests earlier. These are usually more sensitive than the home pregnancy tests, and are made to measure the hormone levels in the blood which shows up before the ones in the urine. Sometimes they are given up to a week early and before a missed period and they will still give accurate results. Of course, this will still depend on a woman’s ovulation cycle and the time that the pregnancy was implanted. Now that you have an idea when to test for pregnancy, you can choose the best one for you.
