Can I take a pregnancy test if my period is two days late?

For women, the first way to know whether they are pregnant is to observe their menstruation. If the menstrual cycle is regular, a sudden delay in menstruation is mostly caused by pregnancy. At this time, using an early pregnancy test strip can generally indicate whether you are pregnant. So, can I do a pregnancy test if my period is delayed for two days? Delaying the test for two days may result in inaccuracy. It is recommended that the test result will be more accurate after the menstrual period is delayed for seven days.

Can I take a pregnancy test if my period is two days late?

It may be a bit early to test if your period is delayed by two days. Generally, you can use a pregnancy test stick to detect pregnancy if your menstrual cycle is delayed by about 7 days, but this is not the case for everyone. If the result of the pregnancy test stick is light and you cannot confirm whether you are pregnant, you can wait a few days before trying the test again, or go directly to the hospital for an early pregnancy test. The accuracy rate of pregnancy test sticks from regular brands is about 85% to 95%. The pregnancy test stick confirms pregnancy by testing the HCG contained in urine. Women ovulate around the 14th day of their menstrual cycle. Assuming fertilization is successful at this time, it will take at least 6 or 7 days for the fertilized egg to produce HCG. In addition, HCG actually starts to be secreted in large quantities after the fertilized egg implants, and the syncytial trophoblast begins to secrete large quantities of HCG, and it takes at least 11 days for the fertilized egg to implant. Therefore, if you want to be more accurate, wait 11 days before using the pregnancy test stick.

We would like to remind all women who are planning to get pregnant to use the first urine in the morning for testing, as hormone levels are most easily detected at this time. The sensitivity of the pregnancy test stick is relatively high. Generally, it can detect whether you are pregnant two days after the fertilized egg implants in the uterus, which is about 7 days before the next menstruation. The same applies if your period is delayed. In addition, if you want to know whether you are pregnant quickly and accurately, you can also choose to go to the hospital for a blood HCG test 10 days after sexual intercourse to confirm the diagnosis. Whether it is an early pregnancy test paper or a pregnancy test stick, it can only be used as the first step in pregnancy screening and cannot be used as a diagnostic method.

How to diagnose pregnancy

1. Urine test:

This is the easiest way to test for pregnancy. You can buy pregnancy test sticks and early pregnancy test strips online or in a pharmacy. You only need to take the test subject's urine (morning urine is more obvious), measure the HCG content in it, and through simple and correct operations you can know whether you are pregnant. Urine testing is a step in initial screening. It is non-invasive, easy to operate, and can be promoted to the public. Its main disadvantage is that it is discovered late and improper operation can lead to misdiagnosis.

2. Blood test

Determining whether a woman is pregnant by measuring the HCG level in the blood is an overkill. Because blood tests can visually display the HCG value in the body in numbers, the baby's development level can be estimated through comparison. And it can be discovered relatively early, within 6-10 days after conception. If you suspect you are pregnant, especially if it is an unexpected pregnancy and you do not want to keep the baby, you can confirm it through a blood test and terminate the pregnancy as soon as possible. Since it requires blood drawing by professional medical institutions, it is not easy to use as an initial screening.

3. Ultrasound

B-ultrasound can more intuitively show the status of the fertilized egg and whether it has successfully reached the uterus and settled down. If an ectopic pregnancy occurs during the field pregnancy, it can also be discovered in time to prevent the tragedy from happening. However, B-ultrasound can only be effective when the menstrual period is more than 2 weeks late. It is costly and the examination method is complicated. It cannot be used as a means of "discovering" pregnancy, but rather as a means to protect the health of the pregnant mother and the fetus.

The above three methods of determining pregnancy are ranked as follows: in terms of discovery time, blood test is the fastest and B-ultrasound is the slowest. In terms of operability, urine test is the simplest and B-ultrasound is the most complicated. In terms of necessity, B-ultrasound is a must, but blood drawing is the least necessary.