Thanks to the popularity of home-use tests, you can easily gain access to overall medical information about your health status or particular condition, being cost-effective, quick, and private. Pregnancy tests are home-use test kits that measures human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a hormone that is only produced when you are pregnant.
You should know that there are only 2 basic types of pregnancy tests, blood pregnancy tests and urine pregnancy test, they both test the presence of hCG secreted in your blood or your urine, detected at the beginning and throughout different times during your pregnancy.
However, blood tests are more accurate than urine tests. They cannot only reveal if your hCG is present, but also provide quantitative information on how much hCG is present, which is helpful to determine the dates of your pregnancy, and is helpful when you need to watch the levels of hormone to ensure the well being and health of your gestation.
A Blood test is also known as quantitative blood test or the beta hCG test, that picking up very small amounts of hCG is very accurate test in comparison to urine test, giving a simple yes or no answer to whether a woman is pregnant. Besides, blood tests can pick up the hormone earlier than urine tests.
Although some sensitive urine tests can test for pregnancy as early as 6 days after you conceive, or the day after you miss a menstrual period, blood tests can do it about 6 to 8 days after your ovulation, instead of the 2 weeks that urinary tests take.
Accuracy in pregnancy home tests depends not only on the method, but also in following the instructions, reading the information before you start the testing, particularly with urine pregnancy tests. As an example, if you do no use your first morning urine, you should make sure that urine has been in your bladder for at least four hours.
Tests literature give you another reason why urine tests can fail, if you bear in mind that drinking excessive amounts of fluid can dilute the urine, making hCG not as detectable.
The warning is printed in the instructions, but if you are not aware of this, you can get a false result from testing. Medications, including contraceptives and fertility drugs, will also affect the results of urine tests
Pregnancy home tests, both blood and urine can be bought over-the-counter at drug or discount stores just make sure to seek prenatal care from a doctor or qualified midwife if you get a positive result.
