The main point of an hCG test is to check this hormone level in the urine.
It stands for human chorionic gonadotropin and while some of the tests can measure the precise amount of the hormone, others are only meant to determine the presence of it in blood or urine.
Information about testing for hCG
This is a hormone that is produced by the placenta in case of pregnant women and this is why it can be determined whether a patient is pregnant or not. Later in pregnancy it also helps doctors see whether the baby has birth defects or not. Certain tumors can also make a change in the hCG levels.
If the results of the testing for hCG are abnormal, it could be caused by cancers coming from the sperm or egg.
This is a test done in case the doctors suspect that the patient could have an abnormal growth in the uterus, uterine cancer or molar pregnancy instead of a normal pregnancy.
In case a woman has a miscarriage, the doctors make an hCG test in order to make sure that she doesn’t have a molar pregnancy.
Regarding men, the test is done to make sure that he isn’t affected by testicle cancer. This means that the hormone isn’t present only in the organism of women.
HCG & pregnancy and testing for hCG
As you may know, the fertilization of the egg takes place in the fallopian tube. It is good to know regarding testing for hCG that the egg that has been fertilized then travels through the fallopian tube all the way to the uterus and it gets implanted into the wall of the uterus. When this happens, the hCG levels start to rise.
You can have the hCG test because the placenta passes the hormone into the bloodstream and also into your urine. First it appears in the blood and this is why a blood test can show that you are pregnant even before you have your first missed period. The main point of hCG is to support your pregnancy.
When it comes to testing for hCG it is good to know that the levels rise until the 14th or 16th week of pregnancy when they have their peak and then they start a slow decrease.
The way the hormone levels rise and fall can indicate the development of the pregnancy and also of the baby.
After you give birth, you can’t really have an hCG test because it disappears from blood. Just as you may have thought, if you have multiplets, the placenta releases more hCG than in case of a single baby.
Just the same, there will be less hCG if the fertilized egg doesn’t get implanted into the uterus.
Blood tests
The good thing about these kinds of testing for hCG is that they can tell you whether the hormone is present in the body and some of them can exactly measure the amount of the hormone in the blood. Such a test is useful to test for pregnancy, to check for cancers or abnormal pregnancies.
As it has been mentioned before, the hCG test can also be used as screening for different kinds of birth defects. Such a test is usually performed between weeks 15 and 20 and they track the levels of three or four different substances of the blood: hCG, AFP and a certain kind of estrogen.
As you can see, an hCG test doesn’t serve only to find out if you are pregnant, but there are some other practical uses as well. This is why it is common to have a test.
