A woman who feels she is possibly pregnant will buy a home pregnancy test or she will go to her physician for the same. A home pregnancy test is based on the effect of hormones present in the urine of pregnant woman on the diagnostic strip. This test can produce reliable results only after one or more weeks after the missed period. If it is done before this period, the level of hormones in urine may not be high enough to be detected by the test.

How This Test is Done:

To do this simple home pregnancy test, the woman has to place the test stick or container in some cases, in her urine stream. After a short waiting period the presence or absence of pregnancy is revealed. If the test is not done too soon after the missed period, the accuracy of such tests is about 97 to 99 percent. It should be kept in mind that some drugs like some hormonal drugs used to treat infertility, can interfere with the pregnancy test and result into 'false positive' test.

Availability and Price:

The home pregnancy tests are freely available in the pharmacies, grocery stores, supermarkets and even online and they are quite inexpensive. The price of course depends on where you buy and whether you buy a single test or a multi-test package. Why would you need more than one pregnancy test? Simply because if the first test is done too soon and it shows as negative, when in reality pregnancy has already started. That is why a second test will be needed after a few days to either confirm or refute the results of the first test.

Home Pregnancy Vs Physician's Test:

Home pregnancy tests are generally dependable and inexpensive way to confirm the presence of pregnancy. They are very similar to the tests performed by the physician in their labs. If you go for the latter option, then you would end up spending more than you would on purchasing a home pregnancy test and doing it on your own. So go to your nearest pharmacy and buy one or two pregnancy tests. You will definitely save money and you can do the test in your home in your privacy whenever you feel like. But it is advisable to perform this test in the morning because the concentration of detectable pregnancy hormone (human chorionic gonadotropin) is maximum in the morning urine.

Sensitivity of the Test:

Not all pregnancy tests are equally sensitive to detect pregnancy early. Various pregnancy tests detect the pregnancy hormones at different levels of concentration. In other words, some tests are sensitive enough to detect pregnancy as soon as a day after the missed period. Others are not sensitive and do so after a week or more.

Confirmation of the Test:

As soon as you get the positive pregnancy test, you should consult your physician so that it can be confirmed with appropriate blood tests and pelvic examination. This is important because if pregnancy has started, then prenatal care has to be started in early pregnancy to ensure a healthy pregnancy and good health of the fetus.