When Should I Take a Pregnancy Test?

If you are wondering how early can you take a pregnancy test then you have come to the right page. Every day hundreds of thousand of women come to the conclusion that they might be pregnant and one of the first things that springs to mind is the question 'when should I take a pregnancy test?'.

We appreciate that this can be a concerning, exciting and altogether anxious time, so this page is going to give you some helpful hints on how soon you can take a pregnancy test and ultimately let you know how early you can detect pregnancy following conception.

There is a difference between how soon you can take take a pregnancy test and when you should take a pregnancy test and we hope to help you recognise this right here, after all you are going to want to make sure that you are checking at the right time in order to get a conclusive result!

It is imperative that you know when to test for pregnancy in order to avoid, or at least severely reduce, the chance of a false result.

When to take a pregnancy test

Every woman that is either trying to get pregnant or is concerned that she might be, will be thinking about when to test for pregnancy. Although women that have been there before and others that know someone that has will know what to do, many others will not know when to take a pregnancy test. This can leave them feeling very alone and isolated and not knowing where to turn to find out what to do next. This site and more specifically this page is designed to help anyone that has a question such as 'when should I take a pregnancy test?'. It is important to know when to take a pregnancy test so that you can be confident that the result you have been provided with is correct.

How early can you take a pregnancy test?

So you think you might be pregnant, perhaps you know what some of the early signs of pregnancy are and you are experiencing these, or you just have a suspicion and want to be on the safe side. Peace of mind is always obtained by taking a pregnancy test, so doing this is a very sensible course of action, but how early can you take a pregnancy test? In this section we are going to discuss how early a pregnancy test can be taken so you are not attempting to find out too soon and getting a false result.

Whether you are trying to conceive or not, one of the most frustrating aspects of finding out whether or not you are pregnant is the waiting, even those women who have the patience of saint don't like it. The general belief is that you should wait at least two weeks after ovulation to take a test, as this is just after implantation has occurred. But is it really necessary to wait two whole weeks? The answer to that question and ultimately how early you can take a pregnancy test depends on the type of test that you are using. With new and more advanced tests coming out all of the time, it is actually possible now to take a test within the initial two week waiting period. The best thing to do is check the information on the test as this will highlight when a conclusive result can be obtained.

Waiting for this long can still lead to a false result. If you happen to test negative at this point and you then go on to miss your period, you should retest, as 9 out of 10 women will get a correct result if this then shows as positive.

In order to understand how early a pregnancy test can be taken it is important to understand how early pregnancy can be detected, so in short what a pregnancy test actually does. We are now going to co on to explain this.

How soon can you take a pregnancy test? - How does a pregnancy test work?

When you are thinking about how soon you can take a pregnancy test it may be of interest to find out how a pregnancy test works. In this section we are going to explain this for you as simply as possible as there is no need to bored you with too much science!

There are two ways of testing for pregnancy, a urine test at home or a blood test at the doctors, both of these are designed to detect the hCG hormone, otherwise known as human chorionic gonadotropin. This hormone is produced by the body very early during pregnancy as it is necessary to support several functions to help a developing baby. Some of the tests that doctors will use will essentially be the same as the home urine pregnancy test that you can get, however others can be a lot more accurate. A blood test can show exactly how much hGC you are producing, where as a urine test will generally find out whether there is a high amount of hGC in the blood that would confirm pregnancy, or not. New pregnancy tests are able to detect smaller levels of hGC making them more sensitive, this means that a test can show as positive as soon as a week past ovulation. Implantation however will happen from a week to ten days past ovulation, during this time varied amounts of hGC can be produced, doubling every three days approximately. Even with it being possible to test a week after ovulation, it is likely that implantation has not occurred this early, or that not enough hGC is being produced for a home pregnancy test to obtain an accurate result. This brings us to how soon can you take a pregnancy test conflicting with when you should take a pregnancy test, this is discussed further down the page in the 'when should I take a pregnancy test?' section.

We hope that not only have we helped you realise how soon you can take a pregnancy test but also that we have given you a basic understanding of how a pregnancy test works.

When can I take a pregnancy test?

As we have mentioned in previous sections the answer to the question 'when can I take a pregnancy test?' is as early as seven days after ovulation, depending on the type of test that you use. It is possible for a blood test from your doctor to be more definitive, however some home pregnancy tests that you can buy online or at your local pharmacy can also successfully detect whether or not you are pregnant this early on as well. For a more definitive and true result though it is wise to wait longer than just a week past ovulation to take a test, we will cover this in our next section on when you should take a pregnancy test.

When should I take a pregnancy test?

If you think, or hope, that you are pregnant then the first question is often 'when should I take a pregnancy test?'. As we have explained in the above sections it is possible for you to take a pregnancy test any time after conception, depending on the type of test that you use. But of course that when you 'can' and when you 'should' take a pregnancy test are two different things. While there is a possibility that a test can show as positive seven days past ovulation, there is a high chance that you are not producing a high enough amount of hCG for a pregnancy test to detect. With this being the case the most sensible and accurate answer to the question 'when should I take a pregnancy test?' is two weeks past ovulation, or after you have missed your period. Of course many people will not want to wait that long and the desire to find out as soon as possible is driving you crazy, but to get an accurate result it is best to be patient.

More information

We hope that this page all about how soon you can take a pregnancy test has been able to help you work out when you are going to take a test.

There is plenty more free and useful information on our site we have pages that help you recognise what the earliest signs of pregnancy are, information on when you can get pregnant, how to know if you are pregnant and also what the most common pregnancy symptoms are. Becoming pregnant can be both an exciting and scary time in your life, so making sure that you have all of the necessary information to hand can be an important helping hand, this site offers a wealth of free information to those women who are expecting and also keen to find out whether or not they are to be expecting.