There are always questions around home pregnancy tests which we have tried to answer here.
When to do a home pregnancy test?
The best time to do the home pregnancy test is immediately after you missed the period. In the first few days after the missed period, it is advisable to take the test with the first-morning sample of the urine but a week later you can do it any time of the day.
It is not a good idea to do the test before you miss a period because you could still be pregnant and yet the test may be negative as the hormones are just entering into the blood circulation. Te levels may be too low and not detected.
For those who have irregular periods then you should check three weeks after your intercourse because the test will take at least two to three weeks to be positive once you have conceived.
When to do the home pregnancy test after a termination/abortion?
After a medical abortion is done, the patient is keen to know that the tablets have worked, and the process of abortion is successful. It is quite common for them to do a home pregnancy test to know that it is negative.
The home pregnancy test should be done only three weeks after the abortion because though the tablets have a very good success rate and the patient may have aborted, the level of the hormones is very high in the blood and it will take some time for it to be cleared from the blood through the urine. Therefore, the urine test will be positive, and the hormone will be detected in the blood and in the urine for as long as up to three weeks and sometimes even longer. It does not mean that the abortion process has failed. It just means that the body takes some time to clear the hormone from the system
How do home pregnancy tests work?
The Urine is used to detect the pregnancy hormone. Various ready to use kits are available in the market and are very user friendly. They give results within a few minutes.
Once the ovum and sperm fertilize then embryo is formed. The embryo implants into the uterine wall and attaches itself. The implantation process happens around the time when you were expecting your periods but you have missed it.
Once the implantation happens, the pregnancy releases the pregnancy hormone which is the Beta Human chorionic gonadotropin (beta HCG) into the circulation. It is detected in the urine. This hormone is not detected in any other situation and therefore it is used to detect a pregnancy.
How to interpret the result from the home pregnancy tests?
Most kits have a well with a mark C and T
First one puts a few drops of urine in the well marked for urine.
Within a few minutes a line appears on the mark C.
This confirms that the kit is valid and functioning.
If there is a line on the mark T, then the test is positive and it confirms that you are pregnant.
If there is no line on the mark T then the test is negative and you are not pregnant.
