Home Pregnancy Test
Home Pregnancy Test's can now let you know if you are pregnant even earlier than before.
Please be aware that HPT's are not 100% reliable and may sometimes, for a variety of reasons, report an inaccurate result.
Once you think you may be pregnant, make an appointment for a blood test to confirm.
- HPTs predict that you are pregnant by detecting the pregnancy hormone hcG.
This hormone can often be detected days before your period is due.
- HPTs are shaped like large pencils, have a soft wick at one end and a thumb indentation on the other so that you can hold it easily.
- The test works by exposing the soft wick side to your urine either by holding it in your urine stream or collecting your urine in a cup and dipping the wick in.
- Reading the results varies by brand so make sure to consult the instructions that came with your HPT. Generally there will be two windows. A control window which just indicates whether the test functioned correctly and a result window. If your HPT has a line result, then a line in the result box, no matter how faint, is a positive result. Some tests have a plus or minus and others a happy face. In those cases the plus or the happy face are positive results. All HPTs should be read within the time mentioned in the instructions and then thrown out to avoid confusion over evaporation lines.
- HPT's do sometimes give faulty results, so if you think you may be pregnant, be sure to confirm by consulting your physician and taking a blood test.