Shortly after your egg is fertilized, it attaches to your uterine lining, this process is called implantation. Once implantation occurs the placenta forms and produces the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG).
This hormone enters your bloodstream and urine and its concentration increases rapidly, doubling every two to three days. The later you take the home pregnancy test, the easier it gets for the test to detect HCG.
Are Pregnancy tests accurate?
Many home pregnancy tests claim to be accurate as early as the first day of a missed period or even before but you are most likely to get more accurate results if you wait a week until after your missed period.
An ultrasound or other more sensitive tests taken in clinics and hospitals are more accurate.
Are there different types of home pregnancy tests?
Yes, there are! Some pregnancy tests are more accurate than the others.
How can I use a pregnancy test kit?
With most tests, the end of a dipstick will be placed in your urine stream or immerse the dipstick in a container of collected urine. A few minutes later, the dipstick reveals the test result which is often as a plus or minus sign, one line or two lines, or the words “pregnant” or “not pregnant” on a strip or screen.
Could medications interfere with test results?
Fertility drugs or other medications that contain HCG might interfere with home pregnancy test results. However, most medications, including antibiotics and birth control pills, don’t affect the accuracy of home pregnancy tests.
What are the best pregnancy test kits?
First Response digital and manual tests are the most sensitive, and can detect hCG-h, the kind of hCG that women produce only very early on in pregnancy, to determine pregnancy sooner. Clearblue Easy and EPT are both less sensitive than First Response, but more sensitive than other tests on the market.
Learn more on pregnancy, here!
References
- EmedicineHealth. Home pregnancy. Accessed on 17th October 2018
- NHS. Due calculator. Accessed on 17th October 2018