How many days before menstruation can a pregnancy test be done (2-6 days, a week)

It's great when a man and a woman are looking forward to the baby. In the past, to gain confidence in your expectations, you had to humbly wait for a delay. With the advent of tests for home diagnosis of conception, you can make sure that a happy phenomenon is approaching much earlier. You just need to buy a tester at the pharmacy. Let's see how many days before menstruation a pregnancy test can be done. What are the types of tests, how they differ from each other and how to use them correctly.

What happens after fertilization

To figure out how appropriate it is to conduct a pregnancy test before the onset of menstruation, we will take a closer look at what happens in the female genital organs after fertilization.

1. An immutable truth - ovulation is necessary to get pregnant. A mature, ready-to-fertilization egg cell lives for a maximum of 72 hours. During this time, she needs to meet with the sperm.
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2. Conception is possible before and after ovulation. The fact is that sperm are quite tenacious, their activity lasts up to 120 hours. This means that male cells may well wait for female cells even after ovulation ends.
3. As soon as one of the sperm cells breaks through the membrane of the oocyte and enters the cell to fertilize it, other male cells can no longer get there and die.
4. When the male and female cells merge, a new cell is formed - a zygote. She already has her own DNA set, consisting of 46 chromosomes. From the earliest stages, information about the future man is recorded in the DNA: it will be a boy or a girl, appearance, a tendency to be overweight, abilities, talents, and the level of intelligence.
5. The formation of the zygote continues for about 12 hours. Further, the new cell begins to slowly move into the uterine cavity, it is pushed by the villi in the fallopian tube.
6. After three days, the cell, which has undergone some changes in the course of its movement, is inside the uterus and floats there for a couple of days. Somewhere on the 7th or 8th day of its journey, the cell is finally determined with its location and attaches itself to the endometrioid layer. Pregnancy is coming.
7. Implantation of a young cell into the endometrium lasts about 2 days. Now, the expectant baby is connected to the blood vessels of his mother and begins to receive nutrition from her body.

And in the female body, the chorionic villi actively secretes a hormone - chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG.
Thanks to this hormone, the production of progesterone continues in the ovaries, which supports the onset of pregnancy, prevents the mother's body from rejecting the fetus, like a foreign body.

For reference! There is a myth that the female cycle lasts 28 weeks. This is not entirely true: a cycle of 4 weeks is the exception rather than the rule. The vast majority of women of reproductive age are either longer or shorter: 24–36 days.

If conception does not occur, then the corpus luteum, which produces progesterone, dies. The production of the hormone is significantly reduced and menstruation begins. If the pregnancy starts successfully, hormone levels remain high.

How to determine pregnancy

With the advent of new progressive technologies, it has become possible to conduct testing that allows you to recognize pregnancy even in the early stages, before the delay in menstruation.

Such testers for determining pregnancy are very easy to use at home, have the most various varieties for every taste, very sensitive and responsive to the slightest change hormones.

The principle of the tester

New generation testers have become commonplace in life. Their function is based on the simplest principle of diagnosing the chorionic gonadotropin hormone in the urine of a prospective mother.

This substance is found in every human body at a level - from 0 to 5 mIU / ml. But after fertilization, the concentration of hCG in female cells increases, and by 1-2 weeks it already exceeds the initial level by more than 5 times (sometimes 20 times).

An increase in the level of gonadotropin at this moment is diagnosed by a test in the form of two colored stripes or other values.

The pregnancy indicator strips are coated with antibodies that recognize hCG and stain under its influence. One strip is always colored, this is simply an indicator of the suitability of the device for use. And the second changes its color only under the influence of contact with chorionic gonadotropin. This means that if the test shows two stripes, the answer is yes: pregnancy. If only one marker appears, the answer is no.

Can a pregnancy test show a result a week before the delay

In anticipation of the exciting joyful events associated with pregnancy and childbirth, many girls begin to check for stripes almost every day. Already a week before the arrival of the expected period, the pregnancy test becomes a daily ritual for them. Ladies, you are sure to get your coveted two stripes.

We already know that the amount of hCG in the body of any woman is 0-5 units. In urine, this figure will be much lower.

The first increases in pregnancy hormone readings are noted on the third day after conception. After ovulation, this will happen around day 7.

The amount of the hormone in urine will vary as follows:

• 7 day p / o - 2-10 units;
• 8 day p / o - 3-18 units;
• 9 day p / o - 5-21 units;
• 10 day p / o - 8–26 units;
• 11 day p / o - 11–45 units;
• 12 day p / o - 17-65 units;
• 13 day p / o - 22-105 units;
• 14 day p / o - 29-170 units.

With a delay, on the first day, errors in the diagnosis are already excluded, the hCG content rises to 39-270 units.

Overview of pregnancy tests

The fact of pregnancy is easy to keep under control if the duration of the menstrual cycle is monitored. It can last 24–36 days. It is not a fact that once a month it will always last 28 days. A woman can more accurately monitor the processes in her body by measuring the basal temperature.

Varieties

Pharmacies sell four types of pregnancy tests. Let's consider them in more detail.

1. Test strips, which are paper plates impregnated with a chemical reagent that reacts to the content of the hormone chorionic gonadotropin. For diagnostics, the plate is immersed in a bottle with morning urine for 5-15 seconds. After 5-10 minutes, the final result appears in the form of one or two colored stripes. Such devices are in demand due to their low price and availability. They have many disadvantages. It is necessary to track the time that the test strip is in the urine: the result may be incorrect if you overexpose or underexpose the plate in the test material.
2. Inkjet testers are disposable and reusable. They are convenient to use: just remove the lid and hold it under the urine stream. A fairly accurate result will appear in 10 minutes. These tests are 5 times more expensive than paper tests.
3. Tablet diagnostics testers are a plastic box with paper strips inside. A drop of urine with a pipette is applied to one of the windows. The result appears after the time allotted in the instructions. The sensitivity of this test is 10–20 units. Manufacturers recommend using this device after the delay has expired. But theoretically, this test can determine the onset of pregnancy with a delay of 1-3 days.
4. Digital tests have a high sensitivity threshold and an accurate result. When measuring on a small screen, the total is displayed not in stripes, but in inscriptions.

Attention! It is advisable to do tests with morning urine. Since the highest concentration of substances from the body is collected in urine during the night.

When buying a test, pay attention to its sensitivity:

• tests with a sensitivity threshold of 10 units. can be used to determine the onset of pregnancy 5 days before normal menstruation;
• if a threshold of 20 is specified, pregnancy can be determined 3 days before the start of a new cycle;
• strips with a sensitivity of 25 units. determine the onset of conception 2 weeks after conception.

Manufacturers

Many expectant mothers are worried about which tester is better to choose. When choosing a test, it is preferable to use the products of the most trusted companies. According to reviews, women most trust the devices of Frautest, Evitest, Mama test, BB-test, Test for Best.

1. Frautest express - has a sensitivity of 15 units. The manufacturer advises to do this ultra sensitive test 2-3 days before the expected period. The device gives a quick result, 99% correct. The instructions indicate that it is allowed to use the test at any time of the day or night, but it is still preferable to do this procedure in the morning. For diagnostics, the strip is immersed in a container with urine for 10 seconds, shows the total after 10 minutes.
2. Evitest - Determines the exact result one day before the predicted menstruation. The manufacturer recommends retesting after 48 hours to confirm the final result. The manufacturer guarantees the accuracy of this product to be 99%.
3. Premium Diagnostics is one of the earliest testers. The manufacturer claims that it does not necessarily require morning urine. A fairly accurate result appears after five minutes. after the start of the diagnosis. Such a test can show the onset of pregnancy 5-6 days before menstruation.
4. The BB test differs in that it is sensitive only to hCG. It produces results that are closest to real.
5. Test for Best is a highly sensitive test for home and professional use. The correct total can be obtained seven days before the expected critical days. The result appears literally 40 seconds after the verification procedure.
6. Mom Test is a highly sensitive diagnostic device that promises an accurate result 2 days before your period. Since its threshold is 10 units, then theoretically, this pregnancy test can show the result as early as 4 5 days before menstruation.

Validation rules

Sometimes on the Internet you can read reviews about any device, where it is stated that the girl did a test that was negative 2 days before menstruation, and a couple of days after the delay turned out positive. Why is this happening? There are several reasons for this. Let's take a look at what can affect the diagnostic results.

What affects the test readings

Before diagnosing, in order to achieve true readings, it is necessary to take into account important factors.

1. Many diagnostic testers are desirable to carry out 2 weeks after the intended conception.
2. The test indicators may turn out to be false negative if the girl heavily consumes liquids, which reduce the concentration of the pregnancy hormone in the urine.
3. If there are malignant formations, then the hCG indicator will also be increased and the result in the absence of pregnancy may be positive.
4. Taking psychotropic drugs based on chlorpromazine negatively affects the credibility of the testers' results.
5. Correct timing for diagnostics. Follow the instructions carefully when diagnosing and viewing results. Diagnostics retains correct results for three to ten minutes.
6. For an ectopic pregnancy, the diagnostic indications will also be affirmative. Be careful here.

Attention! If a weak second strip appears on the test before the delay, this is possibly an ectopic pregnancy. See a doctor immediately.

When choosing a tester, you should not rely on the most sophisticated and expensive devices. According to many mothers, the results of inexpensive strips turned out to be no less accurate than the readings of electronic devices. When buying a tester, pay attention first of all to the sensitivity threshold, price tag and shelf life.