Pregnancy Q&A
Frequently Asked Questions about general conception and pregnancy issues
When do most women take a pregnancy test?
Though you may want to take a home pregnancy test as soon as you can in fact most tend to wait until a missed period just because they want a result they can feel is the most accurate. Some women though will test earlier with a sensitive test, and then if they do not get a positive result, test again around the time of when the period is meant to happen.
Can a pregnancy test tell you if you are pregnant before you have missed a period?
Wondering if you are pregnant when you have had unprotected sex is a stressful time, and women usually want to know when is the soonest they can test at home. It was once true that pregnancy home tests were not that sensitive and you needed to test around the time of your missed period. However there have been developments in home tests and some brands now make sensitive tests that can detect much lower amounts of hCG in your urine. This means you can test for pregnancy before a missed period. However the accuracy of testing early does decrease slightly because each woman is different and while some may have just enough hCG for a sensitive test to detect, others may not. Therefore it is possible to get a false negative result. If you test, and it is negative, wait a few more days to re-test. If that second is also negative, wait until the time of your period.
I have taken a home pregnancy test and I have a faint line, what does that mean?
Home pregnancy tests are a great thing for women who think they may be pregnant; you have the opportunity to test yourself at home in privacy. But sometimes it can be difficult to know what a result means or your emotions can get in the way of correctly interpreting a result. If this is something you are worried about you can opt to use digital pregnancy tests as these will give you your results in words that you do not have to struggle to read. However if you have chosen a test that gives a result window where lines or a line is meant to appear make sure you read the instructions very carefully.
If You Have Sex More Than Once Is It Easier To Get Pregnant ?
Many couples that decide to have a baby don’t have a clue about the whole process from a scientific point of view, so they ask themselves many questions. One of them is “If you have sex more than once is it easier to get pregnant ?”
How do I choose which pregnancy test to use?
For the most part it does not really matter which test you use, as long as you have chosen the right sensitivity. There are many brands out there, but some home pregnancy tests are more sensitive than others and that is important if you are planning on using it before a missed period. If you are pregnant a hormone called hCG will be present in your urine, but when testing early those levels are harder to detect and require a more sensitive test. If you are testing around or after a missed period the sensitivity is probably not an issue as most tests can detect hCG levels at this point. However all women are different and some women may still have low hCG levels at this time, so wait a few more days and re-test or go see a doctor for a blood test. You may also want to think about what display you want – would you prefer to pay the extra for digital that takes the difficulty of interpreting lines out of the equation.
