When you and your husband are trying to conceive, the hardest part of it is the waiting. Even the most patient woman can be frustrate while waiting for the infamous two weeks. For those who cannot wait, questions “do you need to wait for two weeks?” tempt to arise. Pregnancy tests are now available in many stores around you. The technology advance in pregnancy test now allow you to detect pregnancy at home or other convenience place of your choice. You can buy this test kit and and test yourself at home even before you’ve missed your period. But how early you can do the test depends on the type of test that you’re using.
Pregnancy Test
How Pregnancy Test Work
Preganancy tests are working by detecting hCG (human Chorionic Gonadotropin) hormone. This hormone can be detected by several types of lab procedure. Blood test that done in the lab or urine test pack at home both work by this basic test method. The test method is based on color changing of a substance in the test kit once it bound to hCG. While urine test can only detect the occurance of hCG (qualitative), blood test can do better by determine the exact amount (quantitative) of hCG produced by the woman. Though urine test is limited to qualitative test, it works at high enough level to confirm the pregnancy. Should the hCG hormone detected at 5 mIU/L level or above, then the pregnancy test is considered as positive.
What Is hCG and When Is It Being Produced?
hCG or human Chorionic Gonadotropin is a hormone that responsible to stimulate progesterone and estrogen production which is required to support the baby developing process. This hormone is produced very early in pregnancy.
The pregnancy is begin when a woman’s egg and man’s sperm unite on fertilization to form a zygote. With rapid division that the zygote goes through, outer layer that calles a trophoblast is eventually formed. The hCG begin to released by the trophoblast during early pregnancy. And this is not possible to happen before the baby implanted into the uterus.
Ovulation and fertilization usually occur in midway of woman’s menstrual cycle, normally 14 days from the beginning of period. If the fertilization happen, the formed zygote will travel down to the uterine cavity through the fallopian tube. The baby will be implanted deep into the uterine wall around seven to nine days after fertilization. Until then, there will be no hCG detected in your urine nor blood. Then, home pregnancy test should be able to used once your body has begun producing hCG.
When Is The Earliest Pregnancy Test Can Be Taken?
As mentioned before, home pregnancy test kit will detect hCG at amount of 5 mIU/L or above. But the newer type of home pregnancy test is more sensitive. They can detect hCG smaller than 5 mIU/L in your urine. With this sensitiveness, positive test is possible to get as early as seven days post ovulation. Keep in mind that implantation can happen from seven to ten days post ovulation. Also understand that every woman producing hCG in varying amounts.
Please remember there is also a chance that you are not producing high enough level hCG to be detected by the test kit, or the implantation has not occur yet when you conduct the test. Therefore it is recommended to wait until 14 days after ovulation or when the period had missed, just to be sure with the result. But if you cannot wait, the earliest test can be done at seven days after ovulation.
