Health Care

Pregnancy can be an incredibly exciting and enjoyable time, but it can also be rather frightening and confusing, especially if you were not expecting it. This is why it is so truly important to be able to understand a pregnancy test, as well to understand how they work, so that if you do need to use one, you will be sure that you understand the results properly.

How Does a Pregnancy Test Work?

Basically a typical pregnancy test works by looking for the presence of the beta subunit of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) in the urine, and a pregnancy test is usually performed after a missed menstruation, or 2-3 weeks after ovulation. Basically, HCG is able to be detected in urine or blood almost immediately after implantation, which occurs six to twelve days after fertilization.

As a matter of fact, some pregnancy test can even detect HCG as early as 4 days before the next expected period, and whether that statement is correct or not basically depends on the length of the women’s luteal phase and also on how soon that individual embryo implanted.

How Do You Use a Home Pregnancy Test?

Although for the most part every pregnancy test is the same, some have differences. Basically the most popular home pregnancy tests work in a similar way, as they tell the user to hold the given stick into their urine stream, while some others involve collecting urine in a cup and then dipping the stick into it.

After the urine has connected with the stick, you then have to wait a few minutes, and once that time has passed, the user should inspect the results window, where usually if a plus sign appears it means that you are pregnant, and if not, you are thus not pregnant.

Most tests also have a control indicator in the result window, and this line or symbol typically shows whether the test is working or not, so that you can be sure that the test is working as it should.

The actual accuracy of home pregnancy tests depends on several factors, such as: how you use them, when you use them, who use them, the brand of the test, and more. These are all incredibly important because if you use the test improperly for example, it could show up as saying that you are not pregnant when you really are.