3 tests to confirm your pregnancy!

Think you are pregnant? Confirm with these simple tests.

By: Dr Anitha Anchan | | Updated: May 25, 2015 6:44 pm

If missed periods are bothering you, especially after an episode of unprotected sex, it is better to confirm your status with a pregnancy test. There are various options available to confirm your pregnancy. You can either go for a home pregnancy test or opt for a blood or urine test to put your mind to rest. Here are a few tests that can help you know about your pregnancy status.

Pregnancy Tests – how they work

About six to twelve days after fertilization, implantation of fertilised egg to the uterine wall occurs. Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) produced by the cells of the fertilised egg (blastocyst) builds up rapidly in your body. It doubles every 2 to 3 days in the first few weeks of pregnancy reaching a peak level by 8-12 weeks. Pregnancy tests detect this hormone in urine and blood. Pregnancy may also be detected with ultrasonography. Here is how to use a home pregnancy test kit.

Types of Pregnancy Tests

You can know if you are pregnant with three types of tests:

1. Urine test

A urine test can be done at the doctor’s clinic or at home. Home urine test for pregnancy is convenient and about 97% accurate. Though some very sensitive pregnancy test kits may detect pregnancy on the first day of your missed period, to get the most accurate result it is advisable to take the test at least a week after a missed period and to do the test first thing in the morning during which your urine is very concentrated. It is very important to follow instructions on the test kit. The kit may have test strip or dipstick. The test strip needs to be held in the urine stream and the dipstick needs to be dipped into a sample of urine. If you are pregnant, an area on the end of the test strip or dipstick changes colour. Did you know frequent urination is an early sign of pregnancy?

Some kits may have a test device with wells. You will need to collect urine in a cup and place few drops of urine with a dropper into the well mentioned in the instructions. Colour changes in the other wells indicate that you are pregnant. You may get a negative result if you are not pregnant, if you took the test before time or you did not take the test correctly. Confirm your home test result with your doctor.

A false negative test

Sometimes, there may be cases when you actually might be pregnant but the test is negative. This may happen when the testing is done too early. The hormone hCG cannot be detected until after implantation which can occur anywhere from 6 to 12 days after ovulation. Less sensitive urine tests may take another three or four days after implantation to detect hCG. The date of ovulation is very unpredictable and may occur on a different day every cycle and even more so if you have irregular cycles. To get a more accurate idea of when to test, use different ways like charting basal body temperature, ovulation predictor kits (OPKs), etc. to determine the ovulation period. Here are seven tips that could help you become pregnant faster.

A false positive test

You may get a false positive test result if you take the test wrong, read the test after the suggested 3–5 minute reaction time, use test kits past their expiration date or if you have been given an hCG injection during infertility treatment. A false positive pregnancy test result may also be seen in some cancers and other medical conditions that may produce elevated hCG levels.

2. Blood test

Though blood tests are more accurate and can detect pregnancy earlier than urine tests they are used less often. Done at your doctor’s clinic or labs, the blood tests can detect pregnancy six to seven days after ovulation. But it takes longer to get the results. There are two types of blood pregnancy tests:

Qualitative hCG test: It simply detects the presence or absence of hCG as early as 10 days after a missed period to confirm whether you are pregnant or not. It may not detect pregnancy until three or four days after implantation.
Quantitative hCG test: It measures the amount or concentration of hCG, even very low levels, in your blood. Problems like ectopic pregnancy may be detected with this test.
Detecting early pregnancy factor (EPF): Within 48 hours of fertilization, a protein called early pregnancy factor (EPF) is produced. Detecting this protein in the blood is the earliest but expensive and time-consuming way to determine pregnancy.

3. Ultrasonography

Ultrasonography may be used to visualize the fetus in your womb at around four and a half weeks after your last menstrual period (LMP). It can tell you how many weeks you are into pregnancy and how healthy your baby is. You may be able to hear your baby’s heartbeat by seven weeks after LMP. Read: When to have sex to get pregnant?

Image courtesy: Getty Images

Want to know more about the symptoms of pregnancy? Check out the video below.

Published: January 13, 2015 3:47 am | Updated:May 25, 2015 6:44 pm

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