All Blood Tests

Whenever a woman gets pregnant, her body produces a hormone called Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) hormone. This hormone can be detected in the urine and blood of a pregnant woman. hCG is produced by the embryo when it get implanted on the uterus wall. Implantation usually occurs 6 to 10 days after conception. As the embryo grows, the amount of hCG increases and it doubles every 2 to 3 days. This hormone keeps the estrogen and progesterone in proper balance until the placenta develops adequately. The level of hCG peaks at 10 to 12 weeks of pregnancy and then it starts to decrease.

A home pregnancy test detects the level of hCG in the urine. However, not all home pregnancy tests are equal. The more sensitive the test, the earlier your pregnancy will be detected. A sensitive test will be able to give you accurate results as early as 6 to 8 days after conception, and this is long before you miss your first period.

If you are using a home pregnancy test to check whether you are pregnant, make sure you do not use diluted urine samples. This means you shouldn’t drink a lot of water for the test. Instead, you have to make an effort to collect a urine sample that contains the highest amount of hCG hormone and this is possible with the first urine in the morning. If you cannot collect the first morning urine, then it is better to wait for a minimum period of 4 to 5 hours before using your urine for the pregnancy test.