Are pregnancy tests accurate?

In the past, people didn’t have condoms, so they would always have many children. Sometimes they might just have the mentality of giving birth if they got pregnant. Now that society is developing so fast, condoms can be seen everywhere, and the packaging is very beautiful, very similar to Xuanmai, small and exquisite. So people nowadays have a rich sex life and it is not easy to get pregnant. So if you are pregnant, many people will buy a pregnancy test stick first. So some people doubt whether the pregnancy test stick is accurate?

Want to evaluate the accuracy of pregnancy test sticks? First you need to understand how pregnancy tests work. The more official statement is this: After a woman becomes pregnant, her body will secrete a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG for short). This hormone exists in urine and blood. General pregnancy tests use the reaction produced by the combination of single and multiple HCG antigens in the device with antibodies in the urine to determine whether the woman is pregnant or not.

Does this principle sound a bit dizzying? It doesn't matter, we just need to grasp the key point. In fact, it is to test whether there is something like HCG in your body. If it is detected, you are pregnant, because this hormone will be present in your body only when you are pregnant.

The accuracy of pregnancy test sticks from regular brands is about 85% to 95%...

First of all, we need to clarify some issues. Ovulation occurs around the 14th day of the menstrual cycle. Assuming that fertilization is successful at this time, it will take at least 6 or 7 days for the fertilized egg to produce HCG. Pregnancy test sticks are determined by testing urine HCG. HCG actually starts to be secreted in large quantities after the fertilized egg implants, and the syncytial trophoblast begins to secrete large amounts of HCG. It takes at least 11 days for the fertilized egg to implant.

So, the earliest is 6 days. If you want more accuracy, wait until 11 days, as it will be more accurate then. You can make your own guess.

The pregnancy (positive) result can be read after 1 minute (30 seconds at the fastest), which means that if two lines are clearly shown after 1 minute of testing, it indicates a pregnancy (positive) result and there is no need to wait for 3 minutes before reading.

The result of not being pregnant must be confirmed after 3 minutes. This is because in the early stages of pregnancy, the HCG hormone content in the urine is very low, and a weakly positive result may appear during the test. The weakly positive result may not be displayed after 1 minute. As the reaction time increases, it will take 3 minutes for two lines to appear. At this time, the appearance of two lines should still be interpreted as a pregnancy (positive) result. If there is still only one control line after 3 minutes, it can be judged as a not being pregnant (negative) result.

The results read after 5 minutes are invalid! This is because the reading within 5 minutes is used as the experimental basis for designing products. The results of reading after 5 minutes or even longer are not clear. Some people may have false positive results, and this result does not represent the actual situation.

Therefore, there are many factors that affect the accuracy of pregnancy test sticks, and we cannot definitely discuss the accuracy of pregnancy test sticks. So we must first buy genuine products to ensure quality; then we must also understand the correct way to use the pregnancy test stick. Finally, if you are not sure about the detection of the pregnancy test stick, you can also go to the hospital for examination to get the most accurate results for safety reasons.