Facts About Home Pregnancy Tests

Home pregnancy tests are incredibly accurate. They can also detect a pregnancy relatively early after conception. False positives are possible, but rare. If your pregnancy test came back positive, call your doctor and schedule your first prenatal appointment.

  1. How It Works

    • A home pregnancy test detects pregnancy through the presence of the Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) hormone in a woman's urine. HGC is produced by the placenta almost as soon as the egg implants itself in the uterus. Using a pregnancy test in the morning will produce the most accurate results because the levels of hCG are more concentrated in your morning urine. This will make the chance of getting a false negative less likely.

    What to Look For

    • After about 5 minutes of testing your urine, color stripes or bands will begin to appear in the control section of the pregnancy test. The appearance of the control stripe will let you know that the test is working. The test section will let you know if you are pregnant or not. Even a very faint line or plus in the test region indicates a positive result. If you do get a faint line, you may want to repeat the test in 48 hours. At this time, the hCG concentration in your urine may have increased enough to cause a darker line on the pregnancy test.

    When to Use

    • Many home pregnancy tests can detect very low levels of hCG. The earliest that a test will be effective is about 7 to 10 days after ovulation or about 5 days before your next period is scheduled to start. However, it is important to keep in mind that these are rough estimates. If you use a pregnancy test 5 days before your period should begin and you have a negative result, that does not necessarily mean that you are not pregnant. It simply may have been too early to use the test.

    Accuracy

    • Most home pregnancy tests are very accurate. If you follow all instructions carefully and do not use the test too early, you can expect the test to be about 99 percent accurate. It is very important to check the expiration date of the test as this can effect accuracy.

    Affecting the Results

    • Most medications will have no effect on the results of a pregnancy test. Only drugs that contain hCG will cause a false positive. Drugs with hCG are primarily used to treat infertility.

    Chemical Pregnancy

    • It is possible to get a positive result early and then later discover that you are not pregnant. This could be caused by a chemical pregnancy. This happens when an egg implants into the uterus but is then followed by a miscarriage.

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