When should you take a pregnancy test?

Does your body feel different – have you missed your period, are you experiencing nausea, or are there other signs that you may be pregnant? If you have a sneaking suspicion, or a heartfelt hope, it may be time to take a pregnancy test. In this article we discuss how pregnancy tests work and how you should interpret the results.

How pregnancy tests work

Although there is a wide range of pregnancy tests available, they all work in the same way – they test for the presence of the pregnancy hormone hCG in your body. Home test kits always test for pregnancy via your urine, but a test carried out by a midwife or in a lab can also be done with a blood test, as the pregnancy hormone hCG is detectable in both blood and urine.

The test result can be seen after just a few minutes, but for home test kits to work, the increase in the production of the pregnancy hormone hCG must be sufficient to be detectable in your urine – so you need to have a little patience. If you take the test too early, you run the risk of receiving an uncertain or incorrect result. Home test kits look like a plastic stick and can be bought at pharmacies as well as many supermarkets.

When is it possible to use a pregnancy test to find out if you are pregnant?

The most common time to take a pregnancy test is when you have missed your period. If you are unsure when your period was due, a good rule of thumb is to take a pregnancy test when approximately three weeks have passed since you had unprotected sex. However, there are different types of tests available, and they vary somewhat in sensitivity – some can detect the pregnancy hormone hCG just a couple of weeks into the pregnancy. Things are a little different if you are trying to get pregnant via IVF, as the fertilisation process takes place outside the body, and a pregnancy check is usually performed approximately 2 weeks after the embryo was inserted into your body.

How to take a pregnancy test

The packaging always contains exact instructions on how to take the test so that it will work correctly. For some tests, you need to pee into a cup first and then dip the test stick into the urine for a few seconds, while for other tests you can urinate directly onto the stick. It is, of course, also possible to visit a midwife for a pregnancy test, but today’s home test kits are just as reliable as the tests available via a midwife.

Does it matter what time of day the pregnancy test is taken? (H3)

The time of day can matter, as your hCG levels are most highly concentrated in the morning, and if the test is taken before your period is due – in other words, early in a possible pregnancy – it will therefore be easier for the test to detect the pregnancy hormone in your urine if you take the test early in the morning. If, on the other hand, the test is not taken until after you should have gotten your period, the test result will be reliable regardless of the time of day.

How to interpret the results of a pregnancy test

How you should interpret the test result depends to some extent on the type of pregnancy test you are using. Some tests show the result with lines, where one line is a control line to confirm that the test is working. If the control line is still the only line visible after a few minutes (the information on the packaging will state how long you need to wait), the test is negative. If, on the other hand, a second line appears, this means that you are pregnant. There are also digital pregnancy tests that use text or a symbol to show whether the result is positive or negative.

No matter which type of test you are using, a positive result – even if only a faint second line is visible – means that you are almost certainly pregnant. A weak or faint positive test result is simply an indication that it is still early in the pregnancy and your body has therefore not yet had time to produce substantial amounts of the pregnancy hormone hCG.

If the pregnancy test shows a negative result (H3)

As already mentioned, if you take the test too early, your hormone levels may not have risen sufficiently to produce a reliable test result. In other words, you could still be pregnant, despite a negative test result, if the test has been taken too early. Therefore, if you don’t get your period and everything still suggests that you may be pregnant, just wait a few days and then take the test again, or else contact the maternity care service.

What should you do if the test result is positive?

Once you have come to terms with the life-changing situation you are facing, it is a good idea to book an appointment with a midwife for registration and planning of future pregnancy check-ups. Even in situations where the pregnancy is unplanned and unexpected, in which case it may take a while to come to terms with everything and reach a decision on the direction you want to take in life, it is still always a good idea to contact the maternity care service for support and help.

If the pregnancy has been achieved via IVF, a doctor from the clinic will perform a vaginal ultrasound after about five weeks. When you get pregnant, you should also find out what types of food to avoid during pregnancy, and naturally you should stop drinking alcohol and using tobacco.

Bleeding despite a positive pregnancy test

If you experience a little bleeding despite a positive pregnancy test, it could be a case of implantation bleeding, which can occur when a fertilised egg attaches to the lining of the uterus. If, however, you experience more substantial bleeding, you should contact a gynaecologist for a check-up, as a pregnancy test cannot detect a possible miscarriage with certainty – the body’s levels of the pregnancy hormone hCG decrease slowly after a miscarriage, and pregnancy tests can therefore be deceived into showing a positive result for several weeks afterwards.

Please note that all information above is based on Swedish recommendations.