How to Test Pregnancy?

Testing for pregnancy is just like butterflies flying all around inside you. It's indeed a very anxious feeling for a couple to take up the pregnancy test.

Naturally, after missing your periods on your due date, considering you having periods regularly, you definitely would wish to take the test, with little dilemma and confusion. Rather than going to doctor's lab for testing, it's preferred to do it in a private way, at home.

For this, you can collect pregnancy test kits available in medicine shops. Before a purchase, it's advisable to check the expiry of the kit.

Studies claim, it might not be accurate all the time. It’s better to recheck again after some days at a pathological lab for confirmation.

There are basically 3 types of Test you can do.

Urine Test, Blood Test and Sonogram/ Ultrasound.

Urine Test :-

UPT, Urine pregnancy test is to check for HCG hormone in Urine. It's one of the first step conducted by any prospect parent.

Few easy steps involved to check Urine test at home :

1- Collect your urine sample in a sterilized container

2- Take the dropper out of the testing kit. Collect ample amount of urine from the container

3- Add prescribed droplets of urine into that particular area of that kit

4- Wait after adding.

 Time duration is also mentioned on the pregnancy kit.

5- Usually, in some kits, you can see 2 red lines appears if you are diagnosed pregnant and 1 red line if you are not Pregnant.

Please note, the procedure of testing may varies from brand to brand of various kits.

Blood Test :-

You need to take a doctor's appointment to do a blood test. Blood test is usually performed at a medical laboratory.

You can also get services at door steps by checking the home services facilities at pathological laboratory.

Basically, blood test is performed to check the pregnancy hormone, HCG.

Blood test can detect pregnancy little earlier than a home pregnancy test, like urine test. Like, about 6 to 8 days after ovulation. It generally takes 2-3 days for lab testing.

2 types of blood pregnancy tests are available.

One is quantitative blood test. This type of blood test checks if HCG is present or not. It gives a Yes/No answer in the report. It takes little longer time to check, but it's a full proof one.

Another type of blood test is Qualitative blood test (Beta HCG), it checks for correct HCG in blood. It is helpful in tracing any issues available during pregnancy. It is often used to rule out an ectopic pregnancy or used to monitor a woman after her miscarriage when her HCG levels fall rapidly.

Sonogram/Ultrasound :-

Sonogram/Ultrasound is a test done during pregnancy, that uses reflected sound waves to produce a picture of foetus displayed on a TV screen and may be in black/white/colored formats.They are referred as Scan. Sonogram also determine the gestational age of the foetus, and also let you if you are pregnant with more than 1 fetus.

It helps in marking the gestational age or estimated age of fetus.

Trans-vaginal sonogram, done early in a vagina to determine the fetal age or to detect a suspected ectopic pregnancy at the early stage.

All the Best!