When there is a delay in the rule, the suspicion of a possible pregnancy begins, since it is the most notable first symptom. To confirm or not our suspicions sometimes we will have to do a pregnancy test to be clear. Today we will tell you when is the best time to do the pregnancy test.
Pregnancy tests
There are two pregnancy tests: blood and urine. Urine is the fastest and easiest method to know if we are pregnant. You can buy it at any pharmacy and there are several prices and mark. We only have to urinate on the strip to know the result.
Urine pregnancy tests are very accurate if they are used well. The ones you will find in the pharmacy are as safe as the urine tests that you would do at the doctor. They have a reliability of between 75-97% if the result is negative, and 99% if the result is positive. They take care of detect human chorionic gonadotropin hormone (also called HCG) in the urine. It is the hormone that our body produces only when we are pregnant. It begins to occur when the embryo is implanted. If it is positive, you are pregnant, and if it is negative, you are not.
El blood test is performed in a laboratory and is more reliable. It can even detect pregnancy even before the first miss. They can detect HCG levels of 1 mlU / mL while urine tests detect between 20 and 100 mlU / mL. Try to buy those that are more sensitive to the concentration of HCG, most detect from 20 mlU / ml.
When to do a urine pregnancy test
You can do the urine pregnancy test at home. To have more reliability it is best do it with the first urine of the day, which is when there is more concentration of the hormone. The best thing to be able to detect the hormone is also wait at least one day late or you risk having a false negative. If you have a regular cycle, it will be easy for you to know when is the right time, especially if you are looking for a baby, it is most likely that you keep a calendar of your periods and ovulations to increase the probability of getting pregnant.
If you have an irregular cycle, it becomes a bit more complicated, since you will not know for sure when it should come to you. To make sure you can do the test after a week of when you would estimate that your period would arrive.
To perform the test follow the manufacturer's instructions to perform the test, as they may vary from one brand to another. The procedure is very simple, you only have to put the test strip in contact with urine for 5 seconds and try not to come into contact with any other substance. You will have the result in about 2-5 minutes, and each brand has a different way of displaying the results. The most common is that two lines appear to indicate positive and one for negative. One indicates whether the test has been done well, and the other the presence or absence of pregnancy. In others they can tell you on their screen how many weeks you are and the result.
As we saw before, the reliability if it comes out negative is 75-97%. It may be negative while pregnant if you did it too soon as to detect the concentration of the HCG hormone. If the period still does not get off, you can repeat the test a few days or weeks later. Instead a positive result being negative is very rare. It could happen after a spontaneous or voluntary abortion in the last 8 weeks, by taking medication that increases fertility that contains HCG, by having an ectopic pregnancy or an anembryonic pregnancy (in the absence of an embryo).
Why remember… urine tests are inexpensive, reliable and easy to use to help us know if we are pregnant or not.