Early Pregnancy Testing

Overall, where early pregnancy testing is concerned, a qualified Doctor's advice still does matter despite the medical miracles that have taken place in the recent past.

Early pregnancy testing in women has now been made possible primarily through blood tests and urine tests that allow detection of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin hormone [hCG]. hCG is produced during pregnancy immediately after conception by a developing embryo. This type of pregnancy testing measures this hormone in the woman's body to determine if there is pregnancy onset.

Pregnancy testing can be done as early as 6 days after conception. However, Doctors advice that women wait at least until their period is due to get best results. When going through pregnancy testing, it is important to remember that the accuracy of results will differ based on tests applied. Early pregnancy testing using pregnancy test kits can only produce a qualitative result in terms of positive or negative results. Women receiving positive results can't know the precise onset of pregnancy or whether it is all "hunky dory" and progressing healthily. To know specifics on quantity of hCG and pinpoint pregnancy onset, pregnancy testing is done through blood tests that are considered highly sensitive and generate more accurate results.

When adopting early pregnancy testing, instructions should be followed verbatim else results can be flawed. Also, be sure that pregnancy testing kits are within prescribed timelines and haven't expired. If early pregnancy testing is being done by measuring presence of hCG in urine stream, then it is a sound idea to test through morning urine stream as hCG would have accumulated in the bladder overnight giving more effective results. It is also a sensible approach to conduct pregnancy testing around the time, a period is due. Whether tests are positive or not, it is suggested that tests can be repeated after a few days to validate it.

Ideally, pregnancy testing should not be done anytime earlier than when periods are due. Preferably, it should be done after a missed period. The reason for this is that several times women in their excitement or anxiety to know if they are pregnant, do early pregnancy testing even before periods are due. This results in positives for hCG and pregnancy. However, the potential pregnancies don't always attain full pregnancy status since fertilised eggs need to get implanted in uteruses. It is possible that implants may not happen for several reasons including natural causes. At such times, the pregnancies are considered miscarriages technically and are termed as chemical pregnancies. Normally, most women would not even know this if they didn't do early pregnancy testing. However, when they do early pregnancy testing, the results can be emotionally shattering since their expectations go up and down. Not all women may be able to take it well.

Overall, where early pregnancy testing is concerned, a qualified Doctor's advice still does matter despite the medical miracles that have taken place in the recent past.