If you suspect you are pregnant, you can take a pregnancy test at home. In the first instance, it is not necessary for you to see a doctor. A pregnancy test can be purchased from any pharmacy or even from the supermarket. In order to obtain the correct result, the instructions in the prospectus must be followed very carefully.
For many women, the decision to take a pregnancy test can be a major source of anxiety. Sometimes the stress is due to the fact that they want to hold on to the feeling of being pregnant but sometimes it is because they are afraid of being pregnant.
Should you take a pregnancy test?
Whether you hope for a negative or positive result, taking a pregnancy test very early may seem like a good way for you to know if you are pregnant. Unfortunately, taking a test too early can give you a negative result, even if you are pregnant. Either way, it is important to take the test at the right time to make sure that you get the correct result. Next, I will give you some details on the perfect moment for you to take a pregnancy test.
If you worry that you might be pregnant, but you didn’t plan it, you might consider a test because your menstruation is late, or because you think you have pregnancy symptoms, or maybe you are worried that the contraception method did not work, or you forgot to use it.
If you try to get pregnant, you may spend the two weeks thinking if and when to “pee on the stick”. “Should I wait until the menstruation is late? What time of the day is better? After how long should I take a pregnancy test?” These are some of the most frequent questions women ask themselves after unprotected sexual contact.
So, after how long is the pregnancy visible on the test?
Most urine pregnancy tests are recommended to be performed after at least one day of menstrual cycle delay. Of course, we can talk about delayed menstruation in a regular cycle. On the other hand, if you have a short menstrual cycle or irregular cycles, using the calendar to calculate a possible delay has no value.
In this case, you can calculate the time elapsed from the unprotected sexual contact.
- Regular pregnancy tests provide generally reliable results after 14 days from an unprotected sexual contact;
- Ultra-sensitive tests, which can be performed even before you know whether or not you have a delayed cycle, can be taken starting with the 10th day after the contact. There are several options on the market, each with a different degree of sensitivity, so we advise you to read the prospectus before using any test.
If you get a negative pregnancy result but your menstruation is still delaying, the expert’s recommendation is to have some patience and repeat the test after a few days or a week.
Getting a period even when pregnant – is it true?
You may have heard of women who have been on their period even while pregnant, so you ask yourself: If you’re pregnant, will you still get a period in the first month?
Well, the answer is: No. Normally, once the fecundated ovum is planted in the mucosa of the uterus, the menstrual cycle stops.
But each of us is different, so yes, sometimes it happens that the hormonal balance does not completely block the menstruation; sometimes the future mother may have a brown menstruation very small in quantity, which is considered to be a little blood of implantation.
Do you feel something in your belly when you get pregnant?
The moment of the embryo’s birth is itself a little miracle of biology; in practice, this is the moment from which you begin to consider yourself a future mamma, so it is natural to expect a perceptible change. But the fact is that the body is generally rather discreet about this moment.
Some women perceive some symptoms of the installation of their pregnancy if they are very careful with the signals of their body. Among pregnancy symptoms in the first 2 weeks, the most common are discrete cleats, similar or weaker than menstruation, increased sensitivity to odors, sensitive, painful, and slightly swallowed breasts, which may feel heavier.
In very rare cases, there is nausea from the first week of pregnancy; in general, without menstruation delay and without a positive pregnancy test, there are very few ways in which to know for sure that you are pregnant.
Why does the menstruation delay appear?
As you can imagine, menstruation delay is not always caused by pregnancy. There are several reasons; in fact, most often of them have something to do with a hormonal imbalance.
These hormonal imbalances may occur to any female of fertile age. In some cases, this may be a more complex hormonal situation, or a stress period may be sufficient to offset the regular cycle.
You should also read our article about whether you should have a second baby or not.
Menstrual delays and whitish, yellow, green, brown leaks, often with an unpleasant smell, can be the sign of vaginal infection. In this case, it is preferable to refer to the specialist doctor, who will consult you in full, collect laboratory samples, and, depending on the outcome, recommend local or general treatment.
Can I get a false positive or false negative result from a urine pregnancy test?
Urine tests are accurate, but are not extraordinarily sensitive, at least in comparison with the blood test.
A false-positive result of a pregnancy test is very rare. It can be caused by the use of expired tests, by the usage of certain drugs recommended to treat infertility, or by very rare diseases.
A false-negative result may occur more frequently and is due to non-compliance with conditions of use: Generally, performing the test shortly after the unprotected sexual contact or using diluted urine.
If you get a negative result on the day you know your period would start, you should not be disappointed. On the other hand, if the test is negative one week after your period should have started, you can trust the result: You are not pregnant.
It is mandatory to use my first morning urine for testing?
Morning urine is more concentrated than daily urine, which is why the manufacturers of most pregnancy tests, especially the cheap ones, recommend this moment of the day. On the other hand, if you already have a few days of menstruation delay, you can use the urine at any time of the day: The amount of pregnancy hormone (Beta HCG or HCG) should already be large enough to be detected.
What to do if you have symptoms but a negative pregnancy test?
- Repeat the pregnancy test after 3 to 4 days.
- Go to the obstetrician doctor to perform a blood analysis and ultrasound.
- Buy a pregnancy test from another company than you did previously.
- Relax. Stress makes it difficult to determine if you are pregnant or not.
A negative pregnancy test at 5 weeks
If you have pregnancy symptoms, but you still get negative results in all the tests you perform, then we can talk about a false negative result. In addition to not following the instructions from the package of the test, there is a possibility of an ectopic (extrauterine) pregnancy. In the ectopic pregnancy, the embryo develops in the uterine tromps and not in the uterus, hence the false-negative results that show you are not pregnant when you actually are.
Ectopic pregnancy endangers the life of the mother, so she must be treated either medically or surgically, depending on the medical history of the patient. If the embryo continues to develop in the uterine tromps, it may lead to its breaking and cause a massive hemorrhage within the abdomen. Thus, if you show symptoms specific to extrauterine pregnancy such as abundant vaginal bleeding, acute lumbar pain, pelvic pain, dizziness, or fainting, you have to go to the doctor immediately.
As a final conclusion, the best time to perform a pregnancy test is the next day after the expected period and in the morning hours, at the first urination of the day. However, when you are eager to see the results, it is understandable if you are tempted to test yourself earlier.