A home pregnancy test essentially determines whether or not a woman is pregnant by detecting the HCG hormone in a urine sample. Most home tests are able to arrive at a result after 5 minutes. To make sure that you do not receive a false positive pregnancy test result or any other inaccurate answer, make sure you go through all the guidelines provided in print on the packaging of your home testing kit.
When to Test Oneself for Pregnancy?
If you have been charting your fertility with the help of ovulation tests or basal thermometers, understanding when to pursue the pregnancy test is easy. If you are pregnant, your system should ideally contain 25mlU of HCG approximately 10 days after ovulation. On the 12th day, this amount should double and the HCG value after two weeks should be 100 mlU.
Most good quality home kits are sensitive enough to detect HCG levels as little as20 mlU. This means that you should be able to perform a home pregnancy test as early as 7 to 10 days after your ovulation. However, it is important to note that if you receive a negative result, conduct a follow up test after a few days before you jump to conclusions. A negative result on the 7th day cannot be treated as an absolute result.
If you wish to acquire an effective and accurate result early into your pregnancy, it is recommended that you perform the test with your first urine sample of the morning. This is because the morning sample will contain the most concentrated amount of the HCG hormone.
What Does that Faint Line Mean?
While you perform a home pregnancy test, chances are that you will receive a faint line. The depth of the colour on the band is not an indicator of whether or not you are pregnant. As long as the kit interprets your urine within the given reaction time, chances are that your result is accurate. A faint or weak colour band in the test area can be equally indicative of a pregnancy.
Your test results may be faint in cases when you perform your test too soon. In this stage, the HCG levels may not be sufficient enough for detection. You will notice with follow up tests that the shade of the line gets bolder as the value of HCG in your urine sample goes up. Since your HCG values are expected to double every 2or3 days, following up your urine test after a few days can give you a more accurate pregnancy test result. Furthermore, it is important that first time mothers to be do not get disheartened with a negative pregnancy result.
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