Ways to Confirm Pregnancy

Women involving in unprotected sex are at high risk of pregnancy. Not just that, even contraceptive methods do not guarantee 100% safety.  Pregnancy, when unplanned, becomes a liability. If not taken care at the right time, it may pose risk to both mother and fetus.

Hence if a woman is involving in unprotected sex or an incident of protection failure occurs, then a woman must undergo a pregnancy test. Doing this eradicates the chance of further complications.

Taking a pregnancy test is no more a trouble anymore. It can be conducted at the comfort of home or if needed a gynecologist can be booked with just a click.

Here is a list of Ways that Confirm Pregnancy:

Home pregnancy tests: Pregnancy test can be conducted at home using a chemical stick such as ‘Prega news’. This is one of the easiest methods and the result can be easily decoded.

How to use Prega news:  It is a urine based test kit that helps detect pregnancy at home. The kit provides the result within 2-3 minutes and is found to be 99% accurate.

It checks presence of hCG in the urine. 2-3 drops of morning urine is dropped in the circular area of the device. Two pink lines signify pregnancy and one pink line indicate negative result. Sometimes two lines appear with darker and lighter shades of pink, this call for another test with a gap of 2-3 days.

Clinical urine test: The test is conducted by a medical practitioner, and it doesn’t guarantee more accurate results compared to the home pregnancy test. This test also checks the presence of hCG (Human chorionic gonadotropin) in the urine. Since it is conducted under the supervision of a medical practitioner, possible errors can be eliminated. Also, hCG level also increases due to ovarian cancer.

The result is usually available within a week after conducting the test or may vary depending on the medical facility.

Blood test: This test is conducted at a medical center under the supervision of a medical practitioner. The test helps detect hCG present in the blood. The test is further classified in two ways:

Qualitative hCG blood test: The test checks for the production of hCG in the body. The test gives simple answer whether the woman is pregnant or not.

Quantitative hCG blood test: The test measures the level of hCG present in the blood.

Level of hCG depicts time period of pregnancy, on the basis of which further test may be conducted. Quantitative hCG blood test is considered quite accurate as it measures the exact amount of hCG hormone present in the blood.  The test can detect even smaller amount of hCG hormone which cannot be measured by urine test or a qualitative test.

The test is comparatively expensive and result delivery takes more than a week or two.

Trans-vaginal Ultrasound test: A trans-vaginal scan is conducted after 6-7 weeks of missing periods.  The test not only confirms the pregnancy but also gives other relevant information such as location and viability of pregnancy.

The scan helps doctor to analyze health of mother and fetus, or any underlying concerns.

Internal examination:  At least two weeks of missed period, a medical practitioner can do an internal checkup and give the detail whether the woman is pregnant or not. In internal checkup, a doctor examines cervix (lower part of womb) and uterus. During pregnancy, color of cervix changes and it becomes softer. Size of uterus also increases within few weeks of pregnancy.

Later, the internal checkup may be followed by a urine test or a blood test.

Sometimes, women stay unaware of the protection failure and may get pregnant. Hence, it is advised to look for the following signs and symptoms:

• Missed periods: This is the first sign when woman suspects of pregnancy. After fertilization, no egg is released by the uterus and woman stops menstruating. However, a missed period may occur due to stress, weight changes, over eating, etc.
• Urination: The condition occurs due to hormonal changes in the body of the woman when she is pregnant. The hormonal changes result in high frequency of urination.
• Mood swings: The condition is experienced commonly in pregnant women. It occurs due to rising levels of the hormone in the bloodstream.
• Fatigue: Expecting mother undergoes a lot of changes in terms of hormones and body functions, which result in fatigue and loss of sleep.
• Sex drive: Due to presence of hormones in large quantity in  the body, woman may not experience sex drive after conceiving, at least in initial stage.

Pregnancy may be planned or unplanned, wanted or unwanted. But in either case, it requires equal attention and care. Neglecting the condition may cause damage to health of the woman. Hence, it is advised to confirm the pregnancy, if any of its symptoms are experienced.