They may be purchased from pharmacies and, in many countries, in supermarkets. Pregnancy tests, based on human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) immunoassay, are commonly used in the home. It is important for fertility acupuncturists to monitor and to assist patients and ensure that appropriate referrals have been made.ĭavid Huckle, in The Immunoassay Handbook (Fourth Edition), 2013 Home Testing In some cases a specialist referral is necessary, for example, in patients testing positive for thyroid antibodies. Some patients may not be discharged from the ART clinic until later, for example, if they need immunotherapy. If the pregnancy is viable, patients are often discharged from the ART clinic, and usual obstetric care is initiated by the patient’s GP. If the pregnancy test is positive, a transvaginal ultrasound scan is usually carried out between 6 and 7 weeks’ gestation to assess viability of the pregnancy. Pregnancy is confirmed if beta-hCG levels are ≥ 5 IU/L. Pregnancy status can be checked by a home urine pregnancy test, or patients can have their blood beta-hCG levels tested at their ART clinic. The pregnancy test is usually done 14–16 days after egg retrieval. Szmelskyj Do MSc AdvDipClinHyp FRSPH, in Acupuncture for IVF and Assisted Reproduction, 2015 Orthodox medical protocol
Thus, a woman should consult with a physician in conjunction with any pregnancy test, positive or negative. Failure to detect an ectopic pregnancy can be dangerous. Also, a woman with an ectopic pregnancy (in which the blastocyst implants outside the uterus) may not have detectable levels of hCG in her blood. Not only do the immunoassay tests sometimes give false positives and negatives, but some abnormal kinds of embryonic tissue, such as hydatidiform moles, as discussed later, can secrete large amounts of hCG when no embryo is present. However, a more limited number of clinics have the facilities to perform this procedure, and it is more costly than the urine method.Īll these pregnancy tests can give inaccurate results, especially if done in the first two weeks of pregnancy. With this method, hCG can be detected a few days after implantation. Therefore, if one of these kits is used, one should be aware of possible inaccuracies.Īn extremely accurate pregnancy test uses radioimmunoassay of hCG in a woman’s blood. Several home pregnancy test kits are available without prescription they tend to be less accurate than laboratory results from a clinic or doctor’s office. Most urine tests are not sensitive enough to detect hCG until about 15 days after fertilization (about one day after the missed menses).
This can occur because the test is done before hCG is secreted in high enough levels to be detected. Also, a negative response can be obtained in a newly pregnant woman. A deficiency of this method is that in some cases a color forms when hCG is not present this is due to the interaction of anti-hCG with other proteins in the urine and not to hCG. In such an immunoassay pregnancy test, anti-hCG and urine are mixed in a test tube or on a glass slide, and the presence or absence of a certain color is noted. When hCG is present in a solution, anti-hCG combines with it to produce a visible color reaction. The current method of detecting pregnancy utilizes the fact that a monoclonal antibody to hCG (anti-hCG) can be obtained. Fortunately, more effective pregnancy tests have been developed. Another disadvantage was that many animals were killed. One disadvantage was that most of these bioassays could not detect the presence of hCG until two to four weeks after the missed menstrual period. Because hCG acts like luteinizing hormone (LH), when present in the urine it causes ovulation in female animals or spermiation in male animals. In these tests, a woman’s urine was administered to test animals such as mice, rabbits, frogs, and toads. In the past, bioassays were used to detect the presence of hCG. This hormone is human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is secreted by the syncytiotrophoblast of the implanting blastocyst and from the placenta soon after pregnancy is established. Pregnancy tests detect a hormone that is present in the blood and urine of a pregnant woman. Lopez PhD, in Human Reproductive Biology (Fourth Edition), 2014 Pregnancy Tests