If you think that you’re pregnant you may be wondering how early you can detect pregnancy. If you’re trying to get pregnant you may be keen to test as soon as you feel you’re experiencing early pregnancy symptoms however testing too early can be a waste of money and heartache if you get back a negative result.
The reason that it’s recommended to wait until the first day of your missed period is because your body does not start producing hCG on conception but instead when fertilization is completed.
Just how early can you detect pregnancy? Whilst it is technically possible for implantation to happen anytime between 6 and 12 days after ovulation, 85% of the time it occurs 8 to 10 days past ovulation so if you were to take a pregnancy test before 8 days it could come back with a false positive. Deciding when to take a pregnancy test is really up to you but you need to decide whether taking it before 12 days past ovulation is worth the unlikelihood of it detecting a very early pregnancy.
To avoid a false pregnancy test wait at least 10-12 days past ovulation and always take a second pregnancy test two days after your first regardless of your results. If you’ve had a negative test it could be that your hCG levels had not risen enough for pregnancy to be detected or if you’ve had a positive a test two days later can confirm this or tell you if you’ve had an early pregnancy lost known as a chemical pregnancy.
Early pregnancy symptoms
Your body goes through many hormone changes when your pregnant that cause the early pregnancy symptoms. A rise in oestrogen and hCG can make you feel nauseous and cause morning sickness. While a rise in progesterone causes your lungs to have greater capacity meaning you might find yourself with shortness of breath. A rise in hormone levels and blood flow cause some women to have to pee more frequently in early pregnancy – something you will certainly get used to in later pregnancy!
Mums-to-be go through some strange pregnancy symptoms too – an increase in oestrogen heightens a woman’s sense of smell and taste due to their body trying to detect anything that can be harmful to the baby. So if you find you can’t stand your perfume anymore, or the taste of your favourite food you should probably buy a pregnancy test.
Spotting is normal and is known as implantation bleeding. This can sometimes be mistaken for a period however there are several differences to look out for before you get disappointed. There will be a colour difference to your usual period – implantation bleeding is often darker or a light pink. The duration is less and can sometimes be for 1-2 hours up to 1-2 days, but never as long as a usual period and you may experience light cramping.
If you think you’ve experienced implantation bleeding, the advice is to wait 3 days before taking a home pregnancy test. This is due to the levels of hCG only just starting to increase after implantation and you don’t want to get a false pregnancy test.
If you’re trying for a baby, we understand that waiting for the right time to take a pregnancy test can be agonizing but waiting will increase your chances of a correct result.
Here at Kiddies Kingdom, we stock a fantastic range of nursery, maternity and pregnancy products for sale from a number of leading brands, so get in touch with a member of our team for more information.
