The Saga of Becoming Fruitful

Posts Tagged ‘HPT’

Today is THE Day

beta-hCG test is scheduled for today…

I’m not really excited to go since the home pregnancy test results in the last few days were NEGATIVE, regardless of what HPT I used - First Response Early Result, New Choice (the dollar-store kind) or the First Response Rapid Result. (It is going to be a miracle if I am part of the 7% who gets a false negative even after the 2WW.)

But I guess I have to go to get a confirmation (I will be very pleasantly surprised if I test positive!)…
…so that I can stop using the progesterone plugs
…so that I can “welcome” Miss Flo
…so that I can go back to exercising
…so that we can regroup and rethink Plan B
…so that we can move on to the next step…

I will let you know later today what the final results are…

Choosing A Home Pregnancy Test

There was a time when a woman had to wait until she misses her first period and then go to the doctor to have a pregnancy test.  That pregnancy test required killing a rabbit! But … we’ve come a long way, babe, and we can do our own test in the privacy of our own homes with the home pregnancy testers!  And sparing the rabbit, too!

However, home pregnancy testers (HPT) are NOT created equal.

Basically, some HPTs will give you results earlier (as early as 5 days) than others because they are more sensitive.  Of course, the more sensitive HPTs are typically more expensive. So eventually, it all boils down to:
- you want to know earlier if you are pregnant and pay a little bit more
- you can wait till the end of the 2 week wait and use the regular and cheaper HPTs or maybe, just have the blood test then (without using any HPTs!)

How HPTs Work
HPTs work like litmus paper in the sense that the tester needs to be wetted by the sample - in this case, the woman’s urine. It can be done by 1) urinating on the tester stick, 2) collecting urine sample and dipping the tester stick or 3) collecting urine sample and using a dropper to transfer into the tester stick.
The similarity ends there.  The HPT’s mechanism for determining pregnancy is through the detection of the pregnancy hormone, human Chorionic Gonadrotopin or hCG, in the urine.  The tester sticks are treated specially to be able to do this.

hCG is produced by the woman’s body once conception starts and its amount increases at a rapid rate - typically doubling every 2-3 days during the early pregnancy. The hCG builds up in the woman’s body that eventually, it can be passed in the urine. 

hCG levels peaks between the 8th to 11th week of the pregnancy before it slowly decreases throughout the pregnancy. Here are some guidelines from the American Pregnancy Association:

Most HPTs reportedly can detect as low as 25mIU of hCG in urine. The detection could be as early 4 days prior to or as late as 1 day after the expected period. 

One of the  HPTs that claims detection as early as 5 days prior to the expected period is the First Response Early Result (FRER) Pregnancy Test.  The mechanism it claims to use for increased sensitivity (or earlier detection) is its ability to detect another variant of the pregnancy hormone, hyperglycosylated hCG or hCG-H. hCG-H is reported to be produced even before the primary pregnancy hormone, hCG, is produced.

How Sensitive HPTs Are
Interestingly, the product packaging and inserts of the HPTs rarely claim a minimum analytical sensitivity. Nor do their own websites. There are other websites though that have listed such official sensitivity of different brands as checked versus their manufacturers.

I’m a tables-and-graphs person, so I tend to put more confidence on information that reflects thorough research.  Here’s a study done and published in 2005 showing First Response Early Result (FRER) and Clearblue Easy Earliest Results as having more accurate and higher sensitivity results.

You may say, that’s 2005 data. True.  The other manufacturers may have improved since then. As for me, I think I will stick with FRER until I can find a more recent study showing the new best thing! Moreover, my quick research on the HPT prices did not really give a significant price difference between FRER and the others.   (Except for the dollar store kind, of course!)

Really, it is your money, so you can buy whatever you want.  I was just saying!

Is the Blood Pregnancy Test Redundant?
NO. You still need to get the blood pregnancy test as it is the most sensitive pregnancy test, detecting as low as 5mIU of hCG.  So it confirms or disagrees with the HPT’s results. The blood test is still the most definitive detector of pregnancy.

Moreover, HPTs just tells you whether you are pregnant or not. Yes or No. It does not measure the amount of the hCG in your body.

So, the required beta-HCG is still necessary because that is when the quantitative level of the pregnancy hormones are baselined. Baseline beta-HCGs are later used for comparison to the next day’s beta-HCG levels to see the pregnancy hormones’ increase rate. The beta-HCG levels can give early indications on the pregnancy’s characteristics  - is it viable? potential multiple pregnancies? potential complications?

So There You Have It
If you can’t wait and are looking to get earlier results, the First Response Early Result is the best HPT.

If you are looking for the cheapest alternative, then using the dollar store kind is just as good as the expensive ones after you have missed your period.

Do you differ with my recommendations? Tell me your experience with your HPT!

Bad News, Good News

Bad News…




Good News…
AF has no signs of showing up (yet!).

Meanwhile, I did some research on Home Pregnancy Testers and realized that if I was wanting early results, that the dollar-store HPT won’t cut it. So, I just asked DH to buy me some of those “fancy” ones (Read: more expensive).

I thought it would be good to share what I learned about HPTs to all of you. (Although a lot of you may be badge-bearing veterans of HPTs, I figured there are still some of us who need this info.) Check out the other post on Choosing a Home Pregnancy Test. It includes how HPTs work, why sensitivity is important and if blood tests are still needed.

Have a great week-end!

My First ICLW During 2WW

Signing up to my first IComLeavWe during the 2WW was a great move! Not only was I focused on doing something I committed to (instead on obsessing on the 2WW), but I was also able to discover a lot of great ladies and their blogs!

Thank you for all your comments and emails! It is still my goal to respond to some of the comments that I have not yet responded to, within the week!  Like one lady said, I hope some of these new acquaintances “stick”. Who knows?  Nevertheless, thank you sooo much for visiting my blog and giving me hugs.

Anyhow, I peacefully await my 2WW. I got for BHCG on Aug 5, Tuesday.  I hope and pray I do not freak out as it draws near.  So, to ease up some of my anxiety, I will “cheat”.  I plan to test daily with the cheap dollar store HPTs starting on Thursday which is 10dpiui. I know, I know … I could get a false negative or a false positive. It’s cheap anyway, so I don’t mind. 

So tune in…