When Will A Pregnancy Test Work?

Pregnancy tests are designed to be simple to use and even easier to read. When you want to get a clear idea of how do pregnancy tests work, you should understand that the entire concept behind these tests is to detect the presence of hCG, the hormone generated by growing placenta in early pregnancy. The tests are essentially absorbent strips of material that soak up your urine and then test for the presence of this hormone. If you are pregnant, the test’s window will show an indicator of a positive test, usually a plus sign or two blue or pink lines. If you are not pregnant, you will see a negative sign or just one blue or pink line.

The simplicity of these tests makes them marketable to women of all demographics. Any woman, regardless of her educational level, income, race, and other demographic markers, can understand how to use the test and tell if she is or is not pregnant. Moreover, since their introduction to the market in 1979, pregnancy tests have increasingly become more affordable. It is now quite common to see these tests sold at discount, big box, and even dollar stores. Along with being affordable, pregnancy tests are incredibly reliable, with most brands promising at least a 99 percent rate of accuracy. If you want to know if you are pregnant, you no longer have to spend a lot of money or even go to your doctor for a blood test for initial confirmation. You can buy one of these inexpensive tests and test for early pregnancy in the privacy of your own home.

Despite being easy to use, you should take a few common sense approaches before testing yourself. First, you should make sure that the test is well within its expiration limits. Pregnancy tests have finite shelf lives and can malfunction if they are expired. You should also make sure that the indicator window is not cloudy, broken, or otherwise damaged. If it is, you should take the test back to the store and exchange it for a new one. Finally, you should make sure that you wash your hands before you use the test. Contaminants from your hands can alter the results of the test and give you a false reading.

On The Pill How Do Pregnancy Tests Work?

When you are on the pill, you may think that you cannot become pregnant. However, oral birth control only has about a 97 to 98 rate of effectiveness. You have a small chance of becoming pregnant if you are on the Pill, especially if you have not taken your birth control correctly or you have recently been on antibiotics. Despite being on oral birth control, you can still take a pregnancy test and get an accurate result. This is because pregnancy tests are designed to detect hCG and not the chemicals found in your birth control.

With that, you can take a pregnancy test even if you are on the Pill and still get an accurate result. If you get a positive result, however, you should stop taking your birth control immediately and make an appointment with your doctor. While oral birth control is supposed to pose no risk to early pregnancies, it may still be better for you to stop using it to safeguard your growing baby. Your doctor can confirm your pregnancy with a blood test and order an ultrasound to ensure that your baby is growing as it should.

Many women who are on birth control and get positive pregnancy results assume that their tests are wrong and that they are getting a false positive. In fact, these tests offer the same reliability rate for women on the Pill as they do for women who are not on birth control at all. If you get a positive result from a test while on birth control, you should assume that the test is accurate. Even in cases of women using birth control while testing, false positives are exceedingly rare.

How Do Digital Pregnancy Tests Work?

Pregnancy tests continue to evolve. While the older styles are still popular and reliable, more manufacturers are creating digital tests. These digital tests utilize the same premises for older tests. They are designed to detect hCG in your urine. However, they generally perform faster and offer a more than 99 percent accuracy rate. While they cost a bit more than standard pregnancy tests, these digital models can give faster results in a shorter amount of time.

They also can be used earlier than standard tests. In fact, while regular pregnancy tests require that you wait until at least the first day of missing your period, you can use a digital test as soon as three days after conceiving. Regular tests look for hCG in your urine, which is usually detectable about 11 days after you conceive. Digital tests look for bhCG, an enhanced, early version of regular hCG. This enhanced version, bhCG, is emitted from newly fertilized eggs that are traveling from your fallopian tubes into your uterus. If you are even just a few days pregnant, a digital test may be able to detect this early pregnancy hormone.

Digital tests are also easy to read and use. Unlike standard tests, which has an indicator window where a plus sign or two lines appear, digital tests display wording. If you are pregnant, your test will actually display the word “positive” in the indicator window. If you are not pregnant, it will show the word “negative.” Even more, the test has a countdown window that shows you how many seconds you must wait to get a detectable reading and an accurate result. This countdown window helps you avoid any error by reading the test too soon. As soon as the countdown reaches 0, you can check the indicator window and find out within a 99 percent accuracy rate whether or not you are pregnant. Digital tests are designed to minimize the likelihood of human error.