Finding The Best Home Pregnancy Test For You
Home Pregnancy Tests Expert posted in Pregnancy Tests on March 31st, 2007
Every day, hundreds of women use home pregnancy tests to find out if their lives are going to change forever. With so much at stake, it is important that a woman use the best home pregnancy test possible, the one that will give her clear, accurate results. A false negative home pregnancy test can lead to a woman not getting necessary prenatal care. A false positive can be heartbreaking when the truth is discovered. Women who use the best home pregnancy test for their needs are far more likely to get true results so that they and their partners can make plans and choices for the months ahead.
Hundreds of women use home pregnancy tests every day. Some of these women long for children, others hope and pray not to be pregnant, but they all have one thing in common. They are desperate to know the truth. They need to find the best home pregnancy test to give them an answer.
Home pregnancy tests have been on the market for years, and typically cost between ten and twenty dollars. All home pregnancy tests check a woman’s urine for a hormone that is only secreted by pregnant women: human chorionic gonadotropin or hCG. That said, different tests offer different benefits depending your unique needs.
For greatest all around performance, most experts agree that the best home pregnancy test is the First Response Early Result pregnancy test. It is easy to use, requiring that a woman simply hold the absorbent tip of the test strip in her urine stream for five seconds. (Alternatively, a woman can urinate in a container and dip the test strip for no more than five seconds.) If you are pregnant, two pink lines appear. If you are not, one pink line appears.
Used on the first day of a missed pregnancy, the test is 95% accurate. Although advertisements claim that the test can be used as early as five days before a missed period, studies show that at this point the test is only 69% positive–in other words, there is a 31% chance of a false negative home pregnancy test. Therefore, women who use this test before a missed period are encouraged to test again in a week or two. This is especially important for women who may be considering abortion or women whose pregnancies tend to be high risk and require complex medical care.
Some women, especially those who have had a series of miscarriages, may have low levels of hCG in their systems even when they are not pregnant. Very sensitive tests, like the First Response Early Result Test may yield false positives, which can be heartbreaking if a pregnancy is desired. If you have been through several miscarriages or have recently been pregnant and given birth, the best home pregnancy test for you is probably one that is less sensitive to hCG, such as Fact Plus Select. The only drawback is that this test yields a high number of false negatives during the early days of pregnancy and is best used several days after a missed period when hCG levels have climbed significantly.
Finally, some pregnancy tests can be difficult to read. If you’re under stress, you may be frustrated by the so-called line system. When your future hangs in the balance, trying to determine whether you see two lines bleeding into each other or only one line can be maddening.
If you have trouble reading home pregnancy tests, the best home pregnancy test for you may be the ClearBlue Easy Digital Pregnancy Test. An hourglass in the test indicator space shows that the test is working, and the results are unequivocal words: “Pregnant” or “Not Pregnant.”
Women should be aware that, while ClearBlue Easy boasts an accuracy rate of 95% if done on the first day of a missed period, the accuracy rate at four days before a missed period is only 51%–little better than random chance. This means an unacceptably high risk of a false negative home pregnancy test if the test is performed too early.
One day, you may be among the throng of women who use home pregnancy tests to find out whether their lives are about to change forever. Before purchasing a test, it is important to think about your unique needs and select the best home pregnancy test for you.