How soon can early pregnancy tests detect pregnancy?
Hi. I wish I had a cut-and-dry answer for you, but unfortunately it’s not that easy. The manufacturers of home pregnancy tests like to advertise that their test can pick up your pregnancy before the tests made by their competitors. It is possible for some people to test positive before their period is supposed to start. There are other women, though, that have felt their babies kick before they had a + test result (rare, but it does happen, & I’ve met several of these women while volunteering at crisis pregnancy centers). All the urine-based pregnancy tests (whether taken @ home or @ Dr’s office) require a certain amount of HCG (a hormone that is usually only produced in pregnancy) to be in the urine before they show a + result. So, you could be pregnant for a little while before you have enough HCG to make the test show +. Some people produce HCG really quick & can test + very soon; most produce it a little more slowly & it takes weeks to show a + result. If you want to know when you
