Pregnancy Testing For Beginners

Your Quick Guide To Pregnancy Tests

If you’re trying to get pregnant then you’re probably longing for the day when you can get a pregnancy test and give your partner the great news that you both want. Many women that suspect they’re pregnant head out to the chemist and buy a home pregnancy test, but that isn’t your only option. Believe it or not, there are several types of pregnancy test that you could take to confirm or deny your suspicions.

The type of test you choose to have could in fact determine the earliest date that you could take it and get an accurate result, how you take the test and also how long it takes you to get the results. Most women choose home pregnancy tests for a reason, but the information outlined below will give you more to go on when choosing your method of finding out whether you should start painting the nursery!

Bear in mind that all of the pregnancy tests below look for hCG in your body. Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is produced by the placenta just after the embryo has attached to it and the levels of it in your body will increase during the first month or so of your pregnancy.

Urine Tests

The majority of women choose to take pregnancy tests that check the urine for hCG, but there are two main types of urine test. The first consists of peeing into a cup and is used by doctors and nurses that might give you a pregnancy test in a clinic. When you’ve produced the urine, the doctor or nurse will either dip a special stick into it to find out whether you’re pregnant or put a drop of it into a container that is purposely treated to reveal the result. Both tests take a few minutes but you’ll leave the clinic knowing either way.

However, these tests aren’t generally as quick as home pregnancy tests. If you’re familiar with these, you’ll know that you have to pee directly onto the stick whilst in the comfort of your own bathroom. They are not quite as accurate as those taken at the doctor’s surgery because your own human error comes into it, but they are convenient.

Blood Tests

You can have a blood test instead of a urine test to determine whether or not you’re pregnant. These are always done at a doctor’s surgery or clinic. Again, there are two types – a qualitative test that tells you whether or not you have hCG in your blood and a quantitative test that measures how much hCG is in the blood. Both are just as effective but the samples would have to be sent off to a lab to get the results so it can take longer to find out whether you’re pregnant. However, you can have a blood test from a week after conception so this balances that out. Blood pregnancy tests are expensive but they do the job just as well, especially if you’re desperate to know the results.

Whatever pregnancy test you take, the result will be the same as long as it is done properly. Hopefully, it will give you the results that you ultimately want!

A guide to pregnancy tests
Home pregnancy tests are easily the most common of the possible tests used by women to find out whether they’re pregnant or not.