How do pregnancy tests work at all? When should you test in the cycle? Which tests are best? You’ll find out now!
I’m always asked how pregnancy tests actually work when is best to test in the cycle and which tests are best? To answer this question, I tried out three different tests- the ClearBlue expensive pregnancy tests, low cost one step test as well as a highly sensitive company one step tests and their efficiency in my pregnancy cycle compared to the Symptothermal method, which gives women 99% certainty Can recognize pregnancy without a test. The results herein in this article:
How does a pregnancy test work?
1 Ovulation | 2 Fertilization | 3 Way to Uterus | 4 Implantation
As you know, you can only become pregnant when sperm and ovum come together. The egg enters the fallopian tube by ovulation, where it is capable of fertilisation for about 12 to 18 hours. During this time, a sperm can penetrate the egg and fuse with it. The fertilized egg – then travels for about seven days through the fallopian tube to the uterus, where the implant takes place. If the ovum has been nested in the uterine lining, the hormone human choriongonadotropine – in short: hCG, is formed by the fertilized egg which splits and divides during the fusion. The hCG, in turn, informs the brain that a pregnancy has occurred and that all necessary measures must be taken to maintain the pregnancy. The functioning of a pregnancy test is thus very simple. It is positive as soon as you have an increased concentration of hCG in the body. That is also logical because then an implantation has already taken place. It is negative if the hCG concentration is very low because then the fertilized egg cell has not (yet) taken root.
How do I know that a pregnancy test is positive or negative?
In the pregnancy test, the concentration of the hCG in the urine is measured – if the hCG exceeds a threshold, a second line is colored blue. If you have a negative test result, you’ll see only one stroke. The urine test can be carried out comfortably in the toilet. More expensive tests from ClearBlue show electronically – whether the test is negative or positive.
When is it reasonable to do a pregnancy test?
That depends on what kind of tests you use. Most tests show successfully with a high probability of a pregnancy about four days before the expected menstruation. The normal tests, however, only show a pregnancy at a threshold value of 20 miu/ml. If you want to know earlier, you can use a highly sensitive pregnancy test with a concentration of 10 miu/ml. This indicates a pregnancy about seven days before the expected menstruation. The problem is that the natural cycle of a woman can fluctuate between 23 and 35 days, so it is usually impossible to predict when the next menstruation will take place – especially if you have not observed your cycle. You can then optimally work with the average cycle length or longest and shortest cycle, which is unfortunately very inaccurate, and then carry out a test day after day. This is especially possible with inexpensive tests.
C. Gnoth et. al. Zentralblatt für Gynäkologie 118(12):650-4 · February 1996
I personally do this a little differently – I turn to the Symptothermal Method and can, therefore, narrow my ovulation to just a few days. It is known that ovulation takes place about two days before the day after the first elevated measurement of basal temperature and the transportation of the egg takes about seven days. For this reason, I check whether I am pregnant, only seven days after my first higher measurement with a highly sensitive pregnancy test. So far this has always worked – as I would like to show you in the following section in my pregnancy test experiment.
My pregnancy Test Experiment
You can see my pregnancy cycle of my second pregnancy, where I became pregnant despite Hashimoto and Luteal Insufficiency thanks to the use of Symptothermal Method in the first cycle. I have used three different tests to check their suitability. As you can see from this cycle, my first higher measurement was on the 25th day of the Cycle. Ovulation was thus about two days before to the day after. I started testing about the 37th day of the Cycle (October 7, 2016), i.e. from 12 days after the first higher measurement. Now my comparison of the three Tests:
1. Highly sensitive one step company pregnancy tests –10miu/ml
The highly sensitive one-step company pregnancy tests with a concentration of 10 miu/ml showed me a pregnancy from the beginning. However, the test strip at the beginning was very very weak. It then became more and more clear until about 4 days after the first test which became clearly positive.
Tip: I took a urine sample from my four-year-old son and tested it for a cross-check. So I could also see a weak positive test in comparison easily
2. Normal one step pregnancy test – 20 miu/ml
The test did not show positive until around the 42nd day of the cycle (18 days after my temperature rise). Previously, the test was negative. This shows that you do not need to test too soon.
3. Clearblue Pregnancy Tests
The expensive Clearblue pregnancy test has also shown positively from the 37th day of the cycle (13 days after my temperature rise). I was very surprised by this result. Overall, I have to say that the test is worth its money.
Cycle observation with Fertility Awareness
With Fertility Awareness you can determine very clearly and free of charge if you got pregnant. The rule is – you are pregnant if your temperature keeps rising to at least 18 days from the day of the first higher measurement. This was the case with me on the 42nd cycle day. That day, I certainly knew without a test that I was pregnant. Fertility Awareness is proof that by observing our own body – clearly, clearly and for free, we can see whether we are pregnant or not.
My conclusion
This article shows once again that it is not worthwhile to test too early, because the tests usually only show positive result very late. Although I carried out the test about 12 days after the first higher measurement and thus clearly over a week after ovulation – at this time it was only possible to detect very weakly with a highly sensitive test that I am pregnant. The other tests, no matter how expensive they may be, usually do not achieve any other result. Whether you are still worth it, you have to decide for yourself. Without cycle observation, I would run a test only at the time I expect my menstruation – otherwise, the tests are likely to indicate negative.
But more importantly, this article shows that it is possible to clearly ascertain a pregnancy that has occurred without a pregnancy test at 99.99%. All you need to do is know about the cycle, observe the cervical mucus and measure the basal body temperature with a suitable thermometer. We live in a world where knowledge of the natural processes of the body has almost been lost. Most women today do not know when exactly they are fertile and whether ovulation has actually occurred in the cycle. In this day and age, most people trust a test or a computer to determine the fertile days – although we can be proven to be a human being, the cycle observation & evaluation works better than any device!
We live in a world where women are sent to take reproductive medicine, although they have a demonstrably greater chance of becoming pregnant with fertility awareness. I would like to use my online offer to make this change again. I have a dream that every woman knows about her fertile days again – I have a dream that much of us will get pregnant again in a natural way without medical interventions or treatments. To achieve this, I have created together with my partner Marcus an enlightening ebook “When Am I Fertile?”, which will be released in English, soon. I look forward to seeing here to learn more about your fertility.
Your fertility expert Anne
