Pregnancy is undoubtedly one of the life-altering milestones for any woman and thanks to the advancement of medical science nowadays, you do not have to wait for months to know whether you are pregnant or not. There are two ways of detecting whether or not one is likely to become a parent soon – blood tests that must be performed in the office of the obstetrician and the urine test that can be conducted right from the comfort of your home without any professional help.
Mechanism of the Home Pregnancy Test
Home pregnancy test kits are designed in such a way that they are minimalistic and simple to use and even simpler to read. In order to understand the mechanism about how the pregnancy tests work, you should know that the concept of the pregnancy test relies on the presence or absence of the HCG or the Human Chorionic Gonadotropin hormone. This is nothing but the hormone generated by the placenta that is growing inside the mother’s body.
When the egg is fertilized, then your body starts to produce HCG. During early pregnancy, after every 2 or 3 days, the level of HCG becomes double and goes to its peak at the end of the first trimester. You can try an online trimester calculator that shows pregnancy symptoms, related risks, milestones, your baby weight and more for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd trimesters. Remember that a pregnancy test finds how much HCG is present in your urine. No doubt, pregnancy is a life-alerting period for pregnant women. So, it is very important for her and her baby to check the pregnancy highlights week by week. For assistance, try an online pregnancy calculator shows you a week to week pregnancy highlights. And, if your concern is “how far along am I” for pregnancy due date, then give a try to pregnancy due to date calculator that allows you to estimate your expected due date, and also shows you the probability birthday graph.
The HCG enters the bloodstream of the would-be-mother at the time of implantation of the fertilised egg into the lining of the uterus. This can happen as fast as almost 6-7 days post the fertilisation of the eggs. After that, the HCG level rises up at a rapid pace and it often doubles up in every 2 days (48 hours) to be precise. If that amount is detected in any woman’s urinethen the pregnancy tests are supposed to display positive results.
After ovulation, it takes almost seven days for the eggs to move from the ovary to the uterus. The fertilization of the egg can occur as its transfers or when it reaches the uterus. Only after the implantation of the fertilised eggs the production of the HCG begins. It can be very difficult to say when the fertilisation occurs as the sperms can survive for about four or five days inside the body of the women.
It is for this reason, that doctors recommend to wait for at least three days after you miss the menstrual cycle (this can also be calculated as 16 days approximately after the ovulation process) before you should take the pregnancy test.
It may be quite difficult for women who have irregular periods to schedule a pregnancy test at home. Irregular periods are those that occur almost 35 days apart or those that have lesser than 3 weeks between them. In these cases, women should count at least four weeks or 36 days from the time that they last had unprotected sex prior to trying a home pregnancy test.
The Accurate Time and Frequency to Take a Home Pregnancy Test
It is advisable that women should delay for at least a few days after missing their expected period before they take a pregnancy test even though most pregnancy tests claim that they detect pregnancy even before someone misses their periods. There are many examples when women ovulate much later than they know. Not only that, the fertilised egg may also, for several days not be implanted in the uterus. Even then it takes the HCG hormones to extend to the high levels for the test to display a positive result.
This goes without saying that every woman is different and so is each pregnancy. In each pregnancy a woman may produce less or more HCG in every pregnancy. A faint positive result or a negative result does not always signify negative pregnancy. This is what is coined as “false negative” by the doctors. In this case, you should wait for a few days and take another test if your menstrual cycle has still not started.
Keep it in mind that the sooner you take the home pregnancy test the lesser is the HCG hormone in your urine. The most suitable time to take the home pregnancy test is when it is most concentrated. This is the reason why most of the tests recommend women to take it just after they are up from bed in the morning. You should also keep it in mind to wait for at least 24 hours after missing your period.
It is advisable that you should go for the test with the best pregnancy test kit that is available as soon as possible after you have missed your periods. The sooner you know about your pregnancy the faster you can weigh your options and get the vital care of your doctor.