Before reading this article, make sure you have read the other two articles on how to get pregnant and symptoms of pregnancy. If you experience any of the symptoms mentioned in the ‘symptoms of pregnancy‘ article then it is necessary to carry out the pregnancy test. Pregnancy tests are simply carried out to determine if you are pregnant or not. The pregnancy test carried out checks the presence of a hormone which is produced soon after the egg gets fertilized. The hormone produced is called human chronic gonadotropin (HCG). The human chronic gonadotropin hormone occurs straight away when an egg is fertilized and its level doubles after every two to three days. The pregnancy test checks the presence of this hormone in blood or urine. However sometimes it can take a week for this hormone to produce after the egg is fertilized.

There are two main types of pregnancy test carried out these days. As mentioned above that presence of human chronic gonadotropin hormone is checked out in the blood or urine so the test carried out to check pregnancy are called urine test and blood test.

Urine Test:

Urine tests can be carried out at home and is a favorite method of women to test the pregnancy as it is more convenient and private. The excited women mostly take this test at home soon after they miss their period. The kits are easily available at the drug store with complete instructions to follow inside the box. The instruction manual contains the complete detail on how to carry the test at home explained in detail with pictures step by step. It is very important to carefully read and understand the instructions before carrying out the test.

The instruction generally explains the nature of test, a method to store urine for the test, timings of carrying out the test and how to conclude the test result from the data. The test strip is used to collect the sample of your urine for this test which can be either dipped directly into urine stream or collect your urine in a cup and dip the tests strip into it. It is recommended to collect the first morning urine for the test to increase the chances of an accurate result.

It is very important to note down that there is an every chance that urine test can give wrong result as you are no expert to carry out this test. If the test proves positive indicating that you are pregnant but you might not be. If you are unsure about the test results obtained then it is always a good idea to consult your doctor and discuss your test results with him.

Blood Tests

Blood tests cannot be carried at home they are carried out at the doctor’s clinic. This method of checking pregnancy is not as popular as urine test is because these tests don’t conclude immediate results as a urine test. However they can detect pregnancy earlier than the urine test carried out at home and is more reliable.
There are two types of pregnancy tests carried out a Qualitative HCG test and Quantitative HCG test. A Qualitative test simply checks out the presence of HCG hormones in blood while Quantitative checks the exact amount of HCG in the blood. Doctors usually prefer qualitative method to check the pregnancy at an early stage.