Getting Pregnant: The Guide

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Welcome to the last section of our getting pregnant guide!

Home pregnancy tests are now at least 97% accurate and will give the same result as a test performed by a doctor or midwife.

• More than $206 million dollars worth of pregnancy tests are bought each year in the United States.

pregnancy

• Pregnancy is by far the most common reason for a missed period, but it can be caused by a number of reasons: jet lag, severe illness, surgery, shock, bereavement, or other causes of stress. To add to the confusion, a small number of women continue to experience some bleeding during their pregnancies that can be similar to menstrual bleeding.

• Some pregnancy tests require that you collect a sample of urine rather than testing while you urinate. If this is the case, you should ensure that you use a clean, soap-free container. Even small amounts of soap can cause false results when trying to see if you had success getting pregnant.

• The accuracy of a pregnancy test is unlikely to be affected by taking contraceptive pills, antibiotics, and analgesics such as acetaminophen.

• Plan ahead; make sure you read the test instructions to find out what time of day will give the most accurate result. You should also ensure that the test hasn’t exceeded its expiration date.

Successful at Getting Pregnant?

• If your period hasn't arrived two weeks after ovulation, you should be able to get an accurate result from a home pregnancy test. If you do the test too soon then there won’t be sufficient levels of hCG in your urine for a positive result to be shown. If you do get a positive result, you are almost definitely pregnant. Any errors that arise during testing are much more likely to be false negatives.

Click here to restart the getting pregnant guide.