How soon can I do a pregnancy test?

Pregnancy tests are designed to detect the presence of the pregnancy hormone in your body. This hormone is called human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG).
If you're pregnant, the amount of HCG in your body rises rapidly in the early days and weeks, and a home pregnancy test can detect this in your urine.

You may suspect that you are pregnant because you have certain symptoms, such as enlarged, or tingling breasts, nausea (feeling sick), dizziness, a metallic taste in your mouth, and a feeling that your period is about to start. However, not all women have these symptoms.

Most home pregnancy tests can be carried out from the day that your period is due. Counting the number of days from the first day of your period until the day before your next period is due to start, will give you your usual cycle length.

If your cycles are irregular, allow for your longest recent cycle length before testing. If you do not know when your next period is due, wait at least 19 days after you last had unprotected sex before testing.

Negative test results

If you get a negative (not pregnant) result from the pregnancy test, but you still think that you could be pregnant, wait another three days before testing again. You may have conceived later than you thought, and there was not enough HCG in your urine at that stage to be picked up by the first test.

Speak to your doctor if you still get a negative result after a second test but your period has not arrived.

You can also ask your doctor, to perform a blood or urine test to confirm whether or not you are pregnant. Most surgeries will accept your positive home pregnancy test as confirmation because the tests are now as accurate as those that are used by health professionals.

Testing after a miscarriage, abortion, or ectopic pregnancy

If you have had a miscarriage, abortion, or an ectopic pregnancy, it is possible that a home pregnancy test may still test positive for a while afterwards. This is because there may still be raised levels of HCG in your body.

In this situation, if you get a positive test result, it does not necessarily mean that you are still pregnant. However, you may need to see your doctor depending on how long ago your pregnancy ended.

If you have had a miscarriage, you may still get a positive result up to 35 days afterwards. You should see your doctor if you are still testing positive after this time.

If you have had an abortion, a pregnancy test result may stay positive for a few weeks afterwards. You should see your doctor if the test still gives a positive result after four weeks.

If you have an ectopic pregnancy, it is possible for a pregnancy test to return a positive result for up to a month after the embryo has been removed. See your doctor as soon as possible if you still have a positive result after this time.