Early Pregnancy Tests Explained

An early pregnancy test can be conducted in two ways: at home through a home testing kit or at the doctor’s. When you go to the doctor, you may request for a blood or urine test. Both these tests are identical in that they look for traces of the pregnancy hormone. This hormone is unique because it is produced in the body only when the woman becomes pregnant.

Blood tests performed at the healthcare center are of two types. The qualitative hCG test is very much like a urine test, and it can simply give you a confirmation of pregnancy. For greater accuracy, it is important to go for a quantitative blood test which measures the exact amount of hormone in the blood. This test, due to its very nature, can pick up even very small traces of the hormone and is therefore very accurate. Blood tests are performed by taking a tube of blood from the vein, which is sent to the laboratory for examination. The analysis may take anywhere from a few hours to a day max.

Blood tests are generally more accurate than urine tests, and they are also quicker in offering you confirmation of pregnancy because traces of hCG appear about a week earlier in the blood than in the urine. While blood tests can determine pregnancy about a week after ovulation, urine tests take 14-16 days to come out with an accurate result. However, these days there are more sensitive urine tests that can give you a confirmation as early as a week after ovulation.

Now-a-days, many women opt for home pregnancy tests, which also test for the presence of this hormone. In this case, a strip is held to a stream of urine for a prescribed amount of time, after which the strip may develop certain color differences or markings in case the test is positive. It is generally recommended that the first urine of the day be used for the test because this is more concentrated.

Home pregnancy test kits are available in pharmacies and you do not require a doctor’s prescription to buy one. On the positive side, these tests are convenient and they ensure that your privacy is protected. On the negative side, early results may be misleading and you need to wait longer or go for an alternative blood test to be completely sure of the results. Sometimes a false negative test may say that you are not pregnant even though you have conceived. Wrong test results from home pregnancy test kits may have various reasons, including human error. In fact, they leave large room for errors caused by human carelessness. If the strip is not dipped properly or if you have not followed instructions properly, you run the risk of getting a false test result.

So it is advisable to take any negative results from a home pregnancy test with a pinch of salt. To be doubly sure, take the test again after a few days when the amount of hormone in your blood has increased, or better still, opt for a blood test. n