Sooner or later every woman asks herself an important question: am I pregnant? Nowadays pregnancy tests help to find out whether a woman is “in the family way” or not. What kinds of tests are there? How do pregnancy tests work? You will find out the answers to these questions if you read our article.
Pregnancy Tests: The Working Principle
What is the working principle of a pregnancy test? It’s a presence of human chorionic gonadotropin hormone in urine: its production starts as soon as the fertilized egg cell fastens to the uterine wall and begins to develop. If one week has already passed since the conception you can find out if the woman is pregnant by a urine sample with the help of a pregnancy test. Such a period of time should be sufficient for analysis.
When the woman is expecting a baby the agent on the surface of a pregnancy test reacts to the hCG hormone in urine. This reaction becomes visible in the results window on the test in the form of the second line. The color intensity of the line may vary from very bright to barely noticeable.
Thus, when there is no hCG in the female body (that is, the woman is not pregnant) the reaction won’t happen and there will be no second line on a test.
Pregnancy tests also have a so-called “control zone”. There you should be able to see a control line that indicates the test is working properly. In other words, a pregnancy test should show you at least one line in the result window.
How Do Pregnancy Tests Work? Kinds Of Tests
The kinds of pregnancy tests differ according to the method of use:
- Strip-tests that require you to dip them into a cup with your urine sample
- Tests with a small well on the surface where you should put a few drops of the urine with a dropper
- Tests that instruct the user to urinate directly on a stick
- Digital pregnancy tests
Which One to Choose?
In order not to make a mistake you should know the method of use of a particular pregnancy test and how much time it takes to show the results. Every woman wants to know if she is with the child as soon as possible and can’t wait to dispel her doubts. Of course, the cheapest pregnancy tests are the most popular but they don’t guarantee the most trustworthy of results.
How to choose a qualitative pregnancy test? First of all, its sensitivity should be high. The lesser amount of hCG the test can detect the better. You should pay attention to the brand – always choose a respectable manufacturer. And remember: cheap products are usually of poor quality!
Born in Belarus, 1985, a pedagogue and family psychologist, mother. Taking part in procedures of social adaptation of the foster children in new families. Since 2015 is a chief editor of the motherhow.com project, selecting the best and up-to-date material for those, who are planning, expecting, and already having babies.