by Danielle Friedl

Created on: January 11, 2009

There are a few different types of pregnancy tests that you could receive at the doctor's office. The accuracy of these tests depends on the type of testing used and the type of doctor you're seeing. There are some tests that just detect the pregnancy hormone and nothing more. There are others that determine the level of the hormone. If you are going to a primary physician they may just be interested in finding out if you are pregnant and no further information before they refer you to an obstetrician. Your gynecologist may not even run an actual pregnancy test and use other equipment to check the health of your pregnancy. Medical facilities that specialize in running lab tests will usually find out the amount of pregnancy hormone.

The first type of pregnancy test that a lot of doctors use is essentially the same urine test you would take in the privacy of your own bathroom and gives you a yes or no answer. It either did or didn't detect the pregnancy hormone. The reliability of this type of testing relies on a few factors. For this test to work a woman needs to have either already missed her period or be very close to the day that it should arrive. If she is too close to the date of conception there may not be a high enough concentration of the hormone to be picked up, resulting in a false negative. Another recommendation for a more accurate test is to make sure there is at least four hours between the time you're using urine for the test and the last time you used the bathroom. False positives in these types of tests are rare but do happen and often the result of either an ectopic pregnancy or a missed abortion where there was a baby at the very early stages but for some reason it was rejected by the uterus.

The next type of test is done by using a blood sample and can only be done in a doctor's office or lab testing facility. This test will not only detect the pregnancy hormone, but tell you how much of it is present. As a pregnancy progresses this number should be doubling daily. A very low number that doesn't correspond with the date of conception could mean that conception did occur but something went wrong and the baby did not survive. Checking this number can not only give you a yes or no answer to that burning question but can be a small hint into the health of the pregnancy - at least for now. Lab facilities often use this method as their only pregnancy test. Obstetricians usually choose to use this test if there may be trouble with the pregnancy. Most of the time the OB will skip the pregnancy test and go straight for the vaginal ultrasound to get a look at the little bean and treat you to the sound of his or her little heartbeat thumping away.

Whichever doctor you see and whatever test they use the results are usually very accurate. False negatives are most often a result of testing too early and false positives are rare. If you want to save a trip to the doctor to pay a co-pay for peeing on a stick you can do that at home and get the same results. Whatever you do - don't become a victim of repetitive obsessive testing. Just relax and let it happen.

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