Early Pregnancy Test

Whatever the result obtained from an early pregnancy test, it is always suggested that you get advice from a qualified medical practitioner who will guide you on the way forward and will also help you clear any questions that you have.

Several times, women get excited and want to know if they are pregnant or not. They may not even want to wait till the period is due and expect a determination of pregnancy status much earlier than that. In such cases, an early pregnancy test is helpful in deciding status of the pregnancy with either positive or negative results. Interestingly, medical science has advanced rapidly and made strides into the field of medical determination of pregnancy with tests that produce quick and fairly accurate results. One of such beneficial medical advances is an early pregnancy test.

An early pregnancy test measures the presence of hCG or Human Chorionic Gonadotropin either in the blood or urine to know if there is an onset of pregnancy. The Human Chorionic Gonadotropin is also known commonly as the pregnancy hormone since it is present in blood and passed in urine when there is a potential pregnancy. An early pregnancy test is available through a blood test or through a pregnancy test kit. A blood test produces both qualitative and quantitative results whereas the results from a pregnancy test kit are only qualitative. A qualitative result produced through an early pregnancy test viz., HPTs, only predicts if the woman is positive or negative for pregnancy. It does not however establish the levels or quantity of hCG in the body. On the other hand, quantitative results measure precisely the levels of hCG in the body. This is useful in knowing how long the woman has been pregnant and if the progression of pregnancy is healthy.

An early pregnancy test though HPTs or home pregnancy tests has caught on with the larger segment of women since it is easy to conduct by themselves in the privacy of their own homes, not to mention the quick results it produces. Add to that another advantage - it is inexpensive. Several HPTs claim they are anywhere from 97% to 99% accurate. However, there is a potential downside to this story since the test results may not always be conclusive or accurate. There may be cases wherein a positive or negative test result may be flawed or may be incorrect. This could be due to various reasons, one of them primarily being the way an early pregnancy test is applied. If the test period has expired, then the results can not be trusted. Similarly, if the instructions are not followed verbatim, the results will naturally be inaccurate.

Where possible, Doctors advise not to use an early pregnancy test unless the woman concerned is emotionally strong and can withstand the ping-pong of results, especially in the case of chemical pregnancies. wherein the initial early pregnancy test may be positive though it never attains the full status of a pregnancy and actually results in what is referred to as a miscarriage technically.