What is the Definition of Pregnancy Testing?
pregnant test
What is the Definition of Pregnancy Testing?
Urine or blood tests used to detect whether a woman is pregnant.
Description of Pregnancy Testing
The earliest way to know for sure whether you are pregnant is to have a pregnancy test. The fertilized egg at about 4 days old begins to secrete a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). Initially, it can be detected in the mother’s blood, and shortly thereafter it is detected in the mother’s urine.
Human chorionic gonadotropin is not found in the urine of non-pregnant women. Immunologic pregnancy tests employ antibodies to detect HCG in urine and blood.
Increased urinary levels of HCG form the basis of most tests for pregnancy and trophoblastic tumors in men. HCG is present in both blood and urine whenever there is living chorionic/placental tissue.
HCG can be further identified as alpha or beta HCG. It can be detected in the urine of pregnant women 26 to 36 days after the first day of the last menstrual period, or 8 to 10 days after conception.
Most pregnancy tests are conducted with a sample of urine, which is obtained more easily than a sample of blood. Most depend on a reaction between HCG and an antibody to HCG. A second reaction is then needed to determine whether the first reaction has taken place. Often that is a color change.
About three-fourths of the time, results of a urine test done in a clinic or a physician’s office will be positive if you are pregnant and your period is 4 to 7 days late. When your period is 2 weeks late, the accuracy is close to 100 percent.
The recently developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for HCG allows quick and easy determination of the presence of even small quantities of the hormone in the urine.
October 4th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
can you get pregnant a week before you ovulate i wanted to know if is possible for me to get preagnant a week before i ovoulate
what are my chances of becoming preagnat ?
can i still become pregant before my period comes ?
October 4th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Hi everyone! I think you all can empathize with my story - 6 to 7 days late, with both negative HPTs and a blood test. But, I still haven’t gotten my period and have many pregnancy symptoms - sore and HUGE breasts, some cramping that’s much more mild than my menstrual cramps, nausea, etc. I just feel slightly lost about what to do now, but it’s been very comforting to read about your experiences. Thank you for sharing
I think I’m just going to try to take it easy and maybe test again in a few days if my period doesn’t show up. The one good thing - we weren’t “trying,” but this experience made us realize that we’re ready 
Thanks again, and best wishes to everyone.
October 4th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Thanks for that Luvbabies. I’m going this weekend to have a blood test done but my school nurse told me it still might be too early and it’s driving me crazy, all of my friends are saying I am and I’ve already had four people tell me I have “that glow” its kind of scary to think that i might be pregnant because i’m only a freshman in college and still have three more years here. but i’m kind of hoping that I am, years ago my doctors told me I could never get pregnant, and I always said I prove them wrong, they told my mom that too and she had two kids. and since i’m having alot of the symptoms i’m kind of hoping that now is the time that i prove the doctors wrong. but the only thing I’m scared of if I am pregnant is telling the guy that got me pregnant cuz i know he’s definately not ready for a kid, so I haven’t even told him that I might be. well congrats on being pregnant and wish me luck!!
October 4th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
So i wrote on this site in jan when i had period problem. well they just happened again in june!!! so i took another pregnancy test , only this time it had two pink lines! i am 7 weeks prego everyone!!!! so i guess i am not in-fertile afterall!!!!! had my first ultra sound yesterday and saaw my little peanut!