Pregnancy tests – a must do thing for any pregnant woman

Pregnancy comes as a dream coming true for any woman in this world who has had planned for changing her status from a woman to a mother! Furthermore, when she feels that her body has changed and she might have undergone successful coitus resulting into conception, she is the one who wants to get it confirmed first. There comes the role of pregnancy tests.

Pregnancy tests are a must do thing for any pregnant lady. This is just to confirm that she is really pregnant. Pregnancy comes with a lot of hormonal changes in the woman’s body and that is reflected by some physical and mental symptoms. What makes it difficult to understand is most of the pregnancy signs and symptoms are general in nature that resemble to other health ailments and that is why, pregnancy tests become mandatory to get done.

Pregnancy tests are available in two types; one being home pregnancy test that is widely accepted across the world and another comes is the blood test that evaluates the pregnancy hormone in the blood and gets woman her result.

The home pregnancy test is available in almost all the chemist and druggist shop. They are usually sold as OTC – over the counter product and it does not require any doctor’s prescription. The HPT (home pregnancy test), also known as UPT (Urinary Pregnancy Test) comes with a small thin strip that is sensitive to the urine of woman’s who is pregnant. The woman has to follow the instructions given on the literature of the HPT pack. Generally, the first urine in the morning (after letting it go for a second or two) is preferred. The urine is to be collected in cleaned test-tube, or sterlised bottle and then the strip is to be immersed. Alternativelty a drop or two can also be placed on the strip. The strip’s end contains sensitive bands that come up if the woman is pregnant or else the test is negative.

Though UPT detects the pregnancy hormone in the urine, by many health experts, this test is not considered as an authentic test to label a woman pregnant. For this, there is another blood test that detects the pregnancy hormone called Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, HCG. The test may require a couple of days to obtain the result. Nevertheless, in some cases, when the test is failed to detect the HCG, on a health care provider’s recommendation, this test can be done several times.

On the other hand, the results of these pregnancy tests are to be associated with the signs and symptoms woman has. Delayed menstruation, nausea and vomiting (morning sickness), breast tenderness, soreness of nipples, mood swing, backache etc are few of the most common signs and symptoms of pregnancy. However, blood test for pregnancy is recommended for the women who are less than four week pregnant. The reliability of pregnancy blood test depends upon the methodology and technology adopted in the laboratory. It may come with false result if woman has been on fertility drugs and/or the test is performed in early pregnancy period.