In general, the best time is when you have your first morning pee. However, some pregnancy tests are sensitive enough to detect HCG no matter what time of day you take the test. When possible, try to wait until it's been three hours since your last pee before you take the test.
Use First-Morning Urine
Some say that if you hold your urine for more than four hours it is the same as first-morning urine. The key is to not overload yourself on fluids to make your urine more dilute.
How concentrated your urine is. Pregnancy tests used to recommend using your first pee of the morning, when more hCG is present. But now they're sensitive enough to work at any point in the day, although it does help if you're taking the test early.
hCG is a hormone produced by your placenta when you are pregnant. It appears shortly after the embryo attaches to the wall of the uterus. If you are pregnant, this hormone increases very rapidly. If you have a 28 day menstrual cycle, you can detect hCG in your urine 12-15 days after ovulation.
A common misunderstanding surrounding pregnancy tests is that the longer you leave a test in urine, the more accurate the results will be. While you do want to ensure that the test is fully saturated, it's important to follow the instructions carefully, or you might be left with an inaccurate result.
Your test will still be valid if it's the afternoon or you've already had water, but first morning urine will result in a stronger results line.
Urinating too much on a urine pregnancy test should not cause a false negative result. But diluted urine, or urine with a higher water content, can impact a pregnancy test by skewing results.
Test too early and the amount of hCG in your urine isn't detectable. As many as 9 out of 15 women will get a false negative until seven or eight weeks of pregnancy.
Don't Drink A Lot Of Water Before Taking The Test
Diluted urine tends to also have diluted hCG levels which can skew the test results. Take a test when you naturally need to pee. This way, you'll avoid diluting your hCG level and getting a false 'Not Pregnant' result.
How accurate are home pregnancy tests? Many home pregnancy tests claim to be 99% accurate. But home pregnancy tests differ in their ability to find a pregnancy in people who have recently missed a period.
Use the first urine of the day if you're testing early.
However, you can test any time of day if you've already missed your period as the pregnancy hormone level will be high enough to give a positive result at any time of the day if you are pregnant.
There are many reasons your period could be late other than pregnancy. Stress, illness, and changes in weight or nutrition can all affect your menstrual cycle. If you're taking hormonal birth control or took emergency contraception, that can also change your period.
Many women save the test once they see a negative result and check it again an hour later. If another line appears hours later, it is an evaporation line and not a pregnancy indicator. While it depends on the type of test you are using, the reaction time is usually 5 minutes for most tests.
Yes, it is possible. Getting a negative result doesn't mean you're not pregnant, it may just mean your hCG levels are not high enough for the test to detect the hormone in your urine.
Home pregnancy tests can differ in how early they'll detect a pregnancy. In many cases, you might get a positive result from an at-home test as early as 10 days after conception. For a more accurate result, wait until after you've missed your period to take a test.
To get a positive pregnancy test, most women will have to wait 5-10 days after their period was due. Some may detect pregnancy earlier becuase hCG accumulates at different rates for different women.
About 11-14 days after implantation, a woman's hCG levels are high enough to start causing early pregnancy symptoms. Some of these might include fatigue, food cravings, darkening in the color of the nipples, or gastrointestinal changes. When a woman experiences these symptoms, a pregnancy test may show up positive.
It's possible to get a negative pregnancy test result followed by a positive result, especially if you tested early. This is because hCG levels rise rapidly in the first few days after implantation. It's also possible to get a positive test result followed by a negative result.
Know this: All Clearblue® pregnancy tests are over 99% accurate from the day you expect your period. False positives very rarely occur, and are often due to medical conditions or certain medications. False negatives, while more common, typically occur due to testing too early or drinking too much liquid before testing.
The pregnancy tests you get at the drugstore work 99 out of 100 times. They're just as accurate as a urine pregnancy test that you'd get at a doctor's office. Pregnancy tests work by checking your urine (pee) for a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). Your body only makes this hormone if you're pregnant.
If you continue to get a negative result on home pregnancy tests for more than a week after missing your period, it's very unlikely that you're pregnant.
There are a few things that can cause a false negative reading, namely the improper use of the test, testing too early, using an expired test, or diluting the urine by drinking too much water in advance. There are also a few medications that can interfere with the result.
"If you can't take a test in the morning, try to use urine that has been sitting in your bladder for around four hours. Drinking lots of fluids can dilute your urine and lower the concentration of hCG, so it's best to avoid drinking too much water or other drinks before taking a pregnancy test.