Pregnancy blood test

You have not used any contraception methods, you think you might be pregnant, but you are not sure about the results and reliability of home pregnancy test, or you want to know if you are pregnant, but it is too early for a urine test, you may consider the pregnancy blood test. These tests are taken at doctor's clinic. A laboratory tests your blood to detect hCG. These tests are more sensitive than the home pregnancy test. Pregnancy blood pregnancy test can pick up the low concentration of hCG compared to a home pregnancy test and helps to identify pregnancy status, baby health, and problems.

Types of pregnancy blood test : There are two types of pregnancy blood tests. Qualitative hCG blood serum tests check to see if hCG is present in your blood or not. A positive result means you are pregnant and a negative result means you are not pregnant. It just gives "yes" or "no" answer about your pregnancy. Quantitative hCG blood serum tests check both the presence and quantity of hCG present in the blood. It detects even very low level of hCG which helps to determine whether the pregnancy is normal and healthy, and problems like ectopic pregnancy may be detected with this test.

Home test or pregnancy blood test? Like many of fertility and pregnancy questions, there is no straightforward answer to this question. Both determine if you are pregnant or not, but the choice might depend on factors like convenience, expense, accuracy and your fertility history. When deciding if you should use a home pregnancy test or have a pregnancy blood test done at the lab, there are few items to consider like convenience, cost, and accuracy. Many times, the pregnancy blood test is preferred to remove uncertainty in home pregnancy test and acts as a confirmatory test to detect pregnancy. In case of fertile histories like miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy in the past, the doctor generally monitors hCG levels closely in first several weeks of pregnancy. If hCG levels do not rise appropriately in those very early days, it can signal a problem with the pregnancy. Neither a qualitative blood test nor an HPT allows this type of monitoring, as they do not reveal exact amounts of hCG, and cannot determine if levels are increasing appropriately.