Pregnancy Signs & Symptoms, Week by Week Pregnancy Guide

If you are thinking about hCG blood test you should know that it stands for human chorionic gonadotropin and it is a kind of hormone that is produced by the placenta after the fertilized egg gets implanted into the endometrium. It enters the blood right after implantation.

Information about blood test with hCG

The truth is that one single test won’t tell you too much about your pregnancy. You should also know that there is a range of results that are considered to be normal. To be sure that you will have a normal pregnancy the hCG levels should rise during the first six weeks.

When thinking about blood tests and hCG remember that the purpose of the hormone is the corpus luteum’s support that is producing progesterone in the moment of conception. The hormone can be found both in the blood and in the urine, but it can be detected in the blood days before it can be detected in the urine.

The advantage of the hCG blood test is that it can measure the hormone levels quantitatively. This means that the doctors can calculate with approximation the time of conception knowing how fast the hCG levels are supposed to rise at the beginning of the pregnancy.

Facts about hCG and blood test

As it has been mentioned before, a wide range of results are considered to be normal in case of the blood tests. You should also remember that the results of the blood test don’t offer any information regarding the pregnancy’s viability if the levels are above 6,000 in the first 6 weeks.

In this case, since the hCG blood test cannot be used, there is need for a sonogram that could check for the presence of the baby’s heartbeat. Once this has been found it is not wise to use further tests using hCG because these aren’t reliable.

Faster result

It is interesting to know about the blood test measuring hCG that the hormone levels in the urine are normally lower than in the blood. In the same time blood testing is also a lot more sensitive. As a result you can find out using a blood test whether you are pregnant faster than by using a home pregnancy test.

The hCG blood test work 2-3 days after the implantation or over a week after fertilization. Usually the specialists suggest that the hCG levels shouldn’t be used to date a pregnancy because the levels can vary greatly from one pregnancy to the other.

Two types of tests

There are two main kinds of blood tests measuring hCG levels: quantitative and qualitative. The qualitative hCG test is meant to tell you whether you have elevated hCG levels in your system or not. On the other hand, the quantitative test can tell you exactly the amount of hCG you have in your system.

While usually women prefer the urine test, the hCG blood test offers a faster and more accurate result. However these are also more expensive and they can only be done at the office of your doctor.