Q&A
How Soon Can I Take A Home Pregnancy Test?
Question:
How long do I have to wait to get an accurate reading from a home pregnancy test?
Home pregnancy tests measure the pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in your urine. But some are more sensitive than others.
The more sensitive tests may be able to detect low concentrations of hCG as early as 4 days before your period is due. But that doesn't mean every pregnancy may be detected this early.
Testing too early in pregnancy, even with a sensitive test, can give you a false negative (getting a negative result even though you are indeed pregnant). And experts recommend that for accurate results, it's best to test at the time your period would normally be due, or about two weeks after you ovulate. Do the test first thing in the morning, when the pregnancy hormone level in the urine would be the highest.
A negative test can mean you're not pregnant, or you're not as far along your pregnancy as you thought and thus your hCG levels are not high enough to be detected.
If you get a negative result, but you're missing your period or experiencing some of the typical early signs of pregnancy, experts advise repeating the test a few days later. Blood tests, which are more accurate, can also be done at your doctor's office.
