When should I take a pregnancy test
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Summary: When a woman is trying for a child she is dying to know whether or not she is pregnant and she wants to know as soon as possible. When does the endocrine system alter the hormones to be able to tell? Are the levels of hormones the same for all women? What kind of a pregnancy test can I take is also a question many women want to know.
Could I be pregnant is a question many new mothers to be ask themselves often when they have been trying for a baby. Unfortunately the first signs of being pregnant are not an exact science and signs of pregnancy do differ between women. The good news is that pregnancy tests are getting more and more accurate and they can tell earlier whether or not a woman is pregnant.
There are two ways of testing whether or not a woman has any signs of pregnancy. The most usual is a urine test as this can be done at home, and they are a great deal easier to read, as they now say pregnant rather than the old way of a blue line which was often difficult to interpret and left many people testing for pregnancy the wrong result because the instructions were unclear.
The second method of ascertaining if you are pregnant is by taking a blood test. The first signs of pregnancy may be at different times with women, but they are always the same thing, the presence of the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and both types of pregnancy tests detect the hormonal changes.
The most sensitive of the home pregnancy tests can detect the amount of hCG present in the bloodstream a few days before your period is due. However in some women the level of the hormone is not high enough and the pregnancy test will not register a positive pregnancy test result. Almost all of the urine tests will be able to detect the presence of the hormone about two weeks after you ovulate, which coincides with when your period is due. However it is worth bearing in mind that a small number of ladies produce a very minute amount of the hormone, even when they are not pregnant and they may still get a negative reading even though they are pregnant. In short the vast majority of pregnant women can get the correct result from their urine pregnancy test when their period is due.
The more regular your periods were the more likely they are to know exactly when this is. If your periods were not regular than it is harder to pinpoint exactly when you ovulated and is therefore difficult to ascertain with any accuracy when the fortnight is up. On the other hand a pregnancy test using blood is more sensitive because they are capable of registering even a small amount of the hormone as it shows up first in the blood stream and later in the urine. They can normally pick up the hormone changes about eight days after ovulation.
The downside of these is that you cannot have a home pregnancy test involving a blood sample. You must seek your doctor’s cooperation and he may be reluctant to do a test that early unless there are compelling reasons why the test is necessary. However you can have a private blood test to determine if you are pregnant, and because you are paying it can be done when you request it and it will accurately answer your question.
Despite the technological advances in pregnancy tests it does not alter the fact that the most reliable time to test for pregnancy is in fact after your period. Most women have minute changes in their menstrual cycle and it does mean that a pregnancy test can be wrong, especially if you are not sure exactly when you ovulated. This wait can be tortuous especially if you are experiencing the first symptoms of pregnancy which are fatigue, headaches and dizziness. If you take a home pregnancy test early then it is safest to confirm the result a few days later, if the result was negative and you still feel as though you were pregnant. A doctor will want to confirm the pregnancy test. Ovulation kits can be helpful for some women to teat when they are ovulating, but actually a thermometer will do just as well.
