The Best Pregnancy Test
The Best Pregnancy Test
A pregnancy test result should be clear and trustworthy. Choosing a reliable test upfront may save you the emotional turmoil of an uncertain result. Or, at the very least, it will save you some cash. We’ve assessed 26 different tests, scoured online reviews and manufacturers’ testing data, and talked with a clinical chemist, a fertility specialist, and an expert on the pregnancy hormone hCG. We’re confident that JHOME Hcg pregnancy test is the home pregnancy test to take.
What to know
- How they work
Home pregnancy tests detect the hormone hCG, which is found in urine after a fertilized egg has implanted in the uterus.
- Test accuracy
A test’s accuracy changes depending on when you test. The same test will be less accurate before an expected period than after.
- Test sensitivity
A test’s sensitivity is defined as the lowest amount of hCG it can detect 99% of the time. Most tests are comparably sensitive.
- Confirm your result
If you have any questions after taking a home pregnancy test, consult a medical professional.
Test accuracy and sensitivity
Some researchers have estimated that 25 mIU/mL is the lowest amount of hCG a test must be able to measure in order to identify 99% of true positives on the day of an expected period or later. This measure of how frequently a test correctly identifies a positive or negative is a test’s accuracy.
Accuracy changes depending on what day you use the test. A test that claims to be 99% accurate on the day of an expected period may claim just 50% accuracy a few days earlier. Pretty much every pregnancy test has a chart on the box or in the instructions outlining these numbers. You may notice that many tests display their claimed accuracies relative to the day of a “missed period,” which can be misleading. What this actually means is the day after your expected period.
Of course, this is all assuming you have an average-length cycle and that you always ovulate exactly two weeks after your period. In reality, test accuracies are affected by the lengths of different phases of the menstrual cycle, when an egg may have been fertilized, and how long it took a fertilized egg to reach the uterus, among other things. A test’s accuracy is different from its sensitivity, which is defined as the lowest amount of hCG a test can detect 99% of the time. For some tests, this value can be as low as 10 mIU/mL, but for most it is around 25 mIU/mL. Manufacturers determine this using standardized samples with known concentrations of purified hCG. Some at-home tests, like the JHOME HCG pregnancy test we recommend, can detect hCG levels as low as 6 mIU/mL, but only about half the time. The sensitivity of the same test can also vary from person to person because everyone has a different mixture of hCG forms in their urine.
All pregnancy tests detect whole hCG, which has an alpha and a beta region. As hCG degrades, other varieties appear in the urine, including the alpha and beta region on their own and a variant called the beta core fragment. There’s also hyperglycosylated hCG (hCG-H). Some research has suggested that detecting hCG-H could allow a pregnancy test to work earlier. But, Grenache explained, by the time hCG-H appears in urine, regular hCG is already present at measurable levels. Some tests detect several of these variants, but it’s not clear whether that makes them more sensitive.
