Am I Pregnant?
The first suspicion that many women have, upon missing the start date of an expected period, is that they might be pregnant. They then begin to wonder, what's the best method for being absolutely sure?
All pregnancy tests measure the level of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) in a woman's urine or bloodstream. This is a hormone produced after a fertilized egg has implanted itself in the endometrial lining of the uterus, so it is only present if a woman is actually pregnant. It's sometimes referred to as "the pregnancy hormone". It's entirely possible to get false positives with at-home pregnancy tests, but the chances of your body producing hCG without being pregnant are very slim.
How Do Pregnancy Tests Work?
While there are many different brands and styles of at-home pregnancy tests, all of them are testing the same material (urine) for the same substance (hCG), so pregnancy tests do share many similar aspects. The woman is asked to urinate directly onto or into a sample collector, such as a cup or the spongy tip of a plastic stick. Then, depending on the brand, she has to wait anywhere from one minute to ten minutes to read the results. The results are often in the form of a plus or minus symbol, with a plus sign indicating pregnancy.
At-home pregnancy tests, while convenient, inexpensive, and private, are not terribly accurate. Most brands now have a "control window" to display whether or not the test is working properly, and, due to misinterpretations of the end result, digital pregnancy tests now distinctly read "pregnant" or "not pregnant" rather than the old-fashioned plus or minus symbol. At-home pregnancy tests should be taken more than once, over a span of several days, and even then there's only a strong likelihood the test is correct - not an absolute guarantee.
When You Need to Know For Sure..
Your doctor can provide much better results than store-bought pregnancy tests. At your doctor's office, they can test your blood for hCG and return results in minutes. There are two different types of blood-sampled hCG pregnancy tests: a qualitative test, which measures whether or not hCG is present (the same way at-home pregnancy tests work), and a quantitative test, which measures how high your level of hCG is. The quantitative hCG pregnancy tests can actually pinpoint when conception occurred, rather than simply indicating that yes, conception has happened.
There are many folk methods and other over-the-counter aids that promise to predict whether or not you're pregnant, but if you strongly suspect you might be, your best bet is a visit to your doctor. Store-bought pregnancy tests are not accurate enough to be the only source you consult for this extremely important and personal information. So if you decide to take at-home pregnancy tests and you find your results to be mostly positive, one of the first people you should tell, after your partner and your parents, is definitely your doctor.
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