Over-the-counter pregnancy urine tests are an easy and accurate way to find out if you’re pregnant. These tests are typically 99-100% accurate. Urine tests are typically most reliable a minimum of 2 weeks after conceiving. Femme Next Generation Women’s Care in Thousand Oaks, CA offers medical grade pregnancy urine tests as well as blood tests that allow you to test as soon as 7 days after conception. Femme also offers pregnancy ultrasounds and genetic screening/sex determination testing.
Blood and urine pregnancy tests work by checking your blood or urine for a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). Your body only makes this hormone if you’re pregnant. HCG is released when a fertilized egg attaches to the lining of your uterus — when pregnancy begins.
Most doctors recommend that you wait until the first day of your missed period before taking a urine pregnancy test. This is usually about two weeks after conception. A blood prenancy test can detect a pregnancy earlier than a urine test at about 7-12 days from possible conception (but if a negative result is received, a test should be repeated if a period is missed.)
While some evidence of pregnancy can be detected as early as 4 weeks, Femme recommends waiting until 6 or more weeks of gestation. This is the point at which your fetus’s yolk sac will appear, a structure easily visible with ultrasound.