Ep. 77: When to take a pregnancy test
Caitlin Estes:
Welcome to the Woven Well Podcast. I'm your host, Caitlin Estes. I'm a certified fertility care practitioner with a master of divinity degree. Each episode will cover a topic that helps educate and empower you and your fertility while honoring the deep connection your fertility has with your faith. Let's get started.
Caitlin Estes:
Welcome back to the Woven Well Podcast. Today's episode answers a pretty important question for any couple. When should we take a pregnancy test? Of course this information is helpful for couples hoping to conceive a pregnancy, but hey, it's just as important for those avoiding a pregnancy. I can totally understand how you could have a cycle where you're feeling a little extra anxious and you want that mental relief of a negative pregnancy test and it seems simple. Pee on a stick and it's going to tell you if you're pregnant, but there are actually a few more details that go into it than that. So today's episode is going to lay those out for you so that you can feel confident about your pregnancy test results. The reason we are talking about when to take a pregnancy test is because timing can feel a little tricky for those not charting their cycles.
Caitlin Estes:
With a studied or reliable method, it can feel largely like a guess. Maybe a woman feels unusual breast tenderness or nausea and takes one just because regardless of when their last period was. Ladies with irregular cycles may find that they take them fairly frequently, especially if they're not actively avoiding pregnancy again, even if they don't know if they've ovulated yet. Even apps, they can sometimes get it right on when your period will start. They can still be misleading on when you should start testing for pregnancy and timing is actually fairly critical because if you test too early, you could get a false negative. That means that the test result comes back negative, but it's technically too early for a pregnancy to show up anyway. A test around ovulation is going to be pointless because an egg hasn't even been released yet. So pregnancy couldn't have occurred.
Caitlin Estes:
The same's going to go for testing a week after ovulation. Uh, there may be a pregnancy, but it's way too early to get a positive result. So knowing where you are in your cycle and whether you've even had a chance of conceiving that cycle is incredibly empowering. Now, if you're charting your cycles with a tested system like Creighton, ugh, it makes it so much easier. So, of course I can't speak for other methods, but with Creighton, the system that we teach at woven natural fertility Care, the observations you take will not only let you know when to expect your period, but we'll show you exactly when you are in your window of fertility so that you can actively try to conceive or avoid pregnancy. And we'll show you when the best time to test for a possible pregnancy is. You see each cycle has two main phases to it.
Caitlin Estes:
They go by various names, follicular and luteal phases, proliferating and secretory phases. But for our purposes, we'll call them the pre peak phase and the post peak phase. And these phases are divided in every woman by one main event ovulation. This is when the developed egg leaves the ovary and has the potential of being fertilized. Everything in the pre peak phase that comes before this event is there to try to make it happen. And then everything in the post peak phase that comes afterward is there to help the pregnancy that may have occurred. So when you identify that window of fertility around ovulation, then you start seeing exactly when your pre peak and post peak phase is. This allows you to see how long your post peak phase is in each cycle. So it's going to vary by woman. Yours may be 12 and your sister's may be 15, but whatever yours is, it's going to be fairly consistent from cycle to cycle for you.
Caitlin Estes:
This is what tells you exactly when to expect your period. And it's also what helps you to know when to test for an accurate result. In general, Creighton recommends taking a pregnancy test 16 days after your peak day because if you wait that long, then you can be fairly sure that the result's going to be accurate for many 16 days is longer than their post peak phase. And so they may have even missed their period by that day. But if I'm honest, not everyone wants to wait that long to find out. So my personal recommendation, if you'd like to begin testing earlier, is no sooner than two days before the end of your average post post peak phase. So if your post peak phase is 12 days, you can begin testing at peak plus 10. If your post peak phase is 15 days, you can start testing at peak plus 13.
Caitlin Estes:
It's not an exact science, I just, I think it's a solid suggestion. You want to have enough time for your body to register the pregnancy before you start testing. See, after the main event of ovulation, when that egg leaves the ovary and journeys to the fallopian tube, that egg now has the potential to be fertilized. If the couple has had any genital contact during those days of fertility that came before it, then there may be thousands of sperm hanging out in those fallopian tubes waiting for the egg to arrive. And when it does, only one sperm can join with that one egg and a new life is created. If you were to take a pregnancy test at that moment, it would come up negative . That's because the body hasn't registered the pregnancy yet. We have another important milestone that has to happen. First implantation after the fertilization of the egg.
Caitlin Estes:
The new tiny embryo now has to make its way through the rest of the fallopian tube into the uterine cavity and eventually into the lining of the uterus. This is where the embryo will burrow into the lining and implantation has occurred. Without implantation, the pregnancy will never register and the body won't know to support it. And if it implants somewhere else other than the uterine lining, it also won't be able to survive. So implantation in the uterus is absolutely essential. It's also what allows a pregnancy test to then accurately share that news of a pregnancy. So after implantation, it begins producing a hormone that is specific to pregnancy. That hormone is called hCG, and it takes about two to three days to really get high enough to show up on a pregnancy test because that's what all of those tests are looking for and measuring is hCG.
Caitlin Estes:
Obviously, a lot is happening between ovulation and a positive pregnancy test, and that's why timing matters so much. Test too early and your negative may not actually be accurate. Of course, you can always just keep testing every few days until you get that positive or your period starts, but that's not always the best plan for everyone. And I do want to mention this, taking pregnancy tests can be emotionally challenging for a lot of couples and for a lot of women, there is a lot riding on that test no matter how many times you take it. So deciding when and how often to take them truly is a personal decision. Some are going to choose to test as early as possible and as often as possible. Cool, cool, cool. I can get that. Just make sure you're using those cheap tests. You could buy online and not spending $10 every day, okay?
Caitlin Estes:
And there are also women who need to test early because they have medical concerns and they need to know of possible pregnancy absolutely as early as possible. That's fine, that's totally understandable. There are other women who only want to test when they've missed their period because they can't stand seeing a negative when they really want it to be a positive. That makes sense too. So there's not a right or a wrong time to test as long as you're testing in the right part of your cycle. But do what feels best for you. There can most certainly be a lot of emotions and factors that are all mixed up into this decision. And even if you're one of the women who's been terrified of an unplanned pregnancy for years, maybe that doesn't mean that you won't also suddenly feel afraid that you won't be able to have a planned pregnancy.
Caitlin Estes:
Now that you're ready, it can feel scary and overwhelming. And you may find that a pregnancy test just feels like this very visual reminder of that all the time, regardless of when you decide to test. I want to remind you of this. God has not abandoned you in this journey. In fact, God is incredibly active and present as you seek to create a soul and welcome it into this world. This is miraculous work. This is mysterious work. It's beyond what we can define you and I even through science and studies and all the incredible tools that we have available to us. But it's not beyond what God can define or understand because God is the creator of all life, and I believe wholeheartedly that God has good intended for you along this journey. Whether you conceive the first cycle, you try or walk through a hard road with obstacles along the way, God will be present and invested and eager to meet your needs and show you extravagant love along the way.
Caitlin Estes:
I know that still doesn't take away all the concerns, though we can feel God's love for us, trust God's place in our lives and still feel antsy about taking pregnancy tests. That's okay. So to close us out, I have a few final tips that are super practical for taking pregnancy tests because I find when you have some practical tips, it makes you feel like, okay, I cannot control the result, but at least I can know I'm testing well and I know what I'm doing . So first of all, use a reputable brand. And reputable brand does not mean most expensive. Like I mentioned earlier. It means a brand that consistently gives accurate results. So a lot of ladies live by the first response test with the two peak lines because they have been known for decades as being extremely reliable, but those can also be almost $10 a pop.
Caitlin Estes:
Newer online brands like Pregmate are just as accurate, but they're less than a dollar a piece. You can also go to Walmart and get an 88 cent test. Okay? So they are available for you, and this is much nicer for those who are testing multiple times or over multiple months. It really saves a lot of money. I also recommend pink dye tests over blue dye tests. The blue dye just are known for being notoriously iffy. So I say stick with the pink stuff. Second, make sure to follow the instructions of the particular test you purchased. Every one of them is going to be a little bit different. There are some that use droppers, some that are dip tests, others that need to be tested midstream and each have a certain amount of liquid or an amount of time that they need in order to give an accurate result.
Caitlin Estes:
So make sure to read the instructions fully before you go to use the test. And most definitely see how long the test can be read. Some are only valid for three to five minutes, so you don't want to take the test and then come back an hour later and the results no longer valid. Finally, if you can try to use your first morning urine for testing, you can certainly test at other times. I'm not saying not to, but that first morning urine is going to be the most concentrated because those last six to eight hours, you haven't been hydrating and you haven't been urinating. So especially for those who want to test early first morning urine is going to be the best way to get your early results.
Caitlin Estes:
Believe it or not, even with all that, we covered the details and the big picture. There is even more that we could cover today. But I hope that this is a great first conversation about when to take pregnancy tests and that you found it helpful at woven well. We do our best to cover these practical and relevant topics in women's health while incorporating our faith in the process. So if you've enjoyed today's episode, I invite you to follow our podcast so that you can listen to our new episode released every Friday. And if you're already a follower, then I hope you'll leave a podcast review so that others can find us as well. I know I'd really appreciate it. As always, thanks so much for listening as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.