Can hCG be wrong in early pregnancy

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Human chorionic gonadotropin, better known as hCG, is a hormone that begins to be produced in a woman's body immediately after pregnancy. Once the fertilized egg attaches to the uterine wall, hCG controls every process of its development and growth. This occurs on the sixth or eighth day after fertilization. But can HCG be wrong? We will try to understand this and understand what is happening and how.

The most accurate method

Many potential moms are worried about whether the hCG test can be wrong? Doctors say with confidence: yes, an error, in general, can occur, but the accuracy of this method, as a rule, is 99 percent. It is even higher than the accuracy of various tests women choose to determine pregnancy.

A blood test for hCG is the most accurate way to determineearly pregnancy. It is reasonable to carry it out just a few days after the implantation of the embryo into the uterine wall. It is known that hCG begins its production in the female body only when a fertilized egg has already “glued” to one of the walls of the uterus.

Hormone "interesting position"

Based on the foregoing, it follows that the described hormone can be called the hormone of pregnancy. If a woman still only suspects that she could become pregnant, it is absolutely not necessary to wait until there is a delay in menstruation in order to conduct the test necessary in this situation. She will simply donate blood for hCG, and according to their results, she will already understand whether she is waiting for the stork or not yet. This is a paid analysis. And blood is donated either in the antenatal clinic, or in any of the private clinics located near the residence of the potential mother.

Can blood hCG be wrong? Indeed, not all women trust the reliability of its result. But its accuracy is quite high (this was already mentioned a little higher). Of course, an absolute guarantee of the reliability of the result obtained is impossible by performing any analysis. We should not forget that there is a human factor. Can a lab get hCG wrong? Yes, there are quite rare cases when laboratory assistants make mistakes, but they cannot be ignored.

Error or not

When an analysis is performed, it is very important not only to do it correctly, but also to decipher the result. Some of the doctors who performsuch a study can tell about the onset of pregnancy, just by seeing that the level of chorionic gonadotropin in the blood of a woman is markedly increased. But in reality, this approach is not particularly true. To talk about the onset of pregnancy and that it is developing normally, it is better to conduct a couple of tests. In terms of time, the interval between them is at least one week.

If a woman is really expecting a baby, then with each passing week, the concentration of hCG in her blood will increase and increase two to three times. If the gonadotropin remains unchanged, this may be evidence that the pregnancy is ectopic or it froze, unfortunately.

Chrionic gonadotropin and Down syndrome

To determine the risk of having a baby with Down syndrome, several examinations necessary in this situation should be made. These will be first and second trimester screenings.

In the first trimester (this is a period of eleven to thirteen weeks and six days), in addition to other tests, it is necessary to measure the level of hCG in the blood of the expectant mother. If the hCG level is elevated, the baby may have an increased risk of Down syndrome.

What is this analysis anyway

To correctly answer the question - can an analysis for hCG be wrong, you must initially understand the principle of such an analysis.

At its core, this is a routine blood test for hormones, which most women take many times in their lives. Human chorionic gonadotropin is produced in the chorion (the so-called externalgerminal membrane) after the embryo has attached to the wall of the uterus.

When a woman is in her normal state, that is, she does not have a pregnancy, the level of the described hormone in her blood is approximately 5 mU / ml. By the way, the same amount is produced even in men as a result of the work of the pituitary gland (this is a special part of the brain).

But when pregnancy occurs, the level of hCG in the woman's blood begins to rise. At first it happens exponentially, and then almost as quickly and decreases. In the second half of pregnancy, it remains almost at the same, almost unchanged level.

Can hCG be wrong, an important question for women. Here, according to the level of this hormone, the analysis will be able to determine whether there is a pregnancy or not, whether there is some kind of fetal pathology or not. It is by the analysis of hCG that they determine how the pregnancy develops.

By the way, it is to this hormone that women owe the correct course of the entire pregnancy, because how the expectant mother will live for the next nine months directly depends on its level. Due to the fact that the level of the hormone hCG rises, menstruation "freezes" and there is a significant increase in the production of hormones that are so necessary to maintain each pregnancy.

The hCG hormone has alpha and beta subunits. The alpha subunit is similar to other human hormones; but the beta subunit is unique in its kind: here it is a marker of the presence or absence of pregnancy.

How normal hCG grows

Before you figure out if hCG can be wrong for pregnancy, you should understand: if the pregnancy develops absolutely correctly, as it should be, then the level of gonadotropin will constantly “grow up” until the tenth or twelfth week. Then it starts to decline. This has already been mentioned a little higher.

Change in the level of the hormone in each expectant mother occurs in completely different ways, so you should not focus on any established norms for its growth. And yet, in most cases, the level of gonadotropin doubles on average every one to three days by the fourth week, and later every three and a half days by the ninth week. It is absolutely normal that hCG drops after the tenth to twelfth week.

If there is no increase or decrease in hCG levels, a woman should immediately contact her gynecologist, because this may be evidence of a miscarriage or that the pregnancy has stopped.

If there is a reverse reaction, that is, the level rises quite quickly, then it is also worth going to the gynecologist, because this is the only way to exclude some complications, for example, a hydatidiform mole.

Drugs that affect the level of hCG in the blood

Many women are worried, but can hCG be wrong before the delay? Especially if they were taking certain medications. Here you need to know one more thing: the level of hCG in the blood is changed only by those drugs in which this hormone is present (Horagon, Pregnil). These drugs are usually used by women,who are being treated for infertility when it is necessary to stimulate ovulation. If one of these drugs has been taken or the woman has taken a certain course in order to stimulate ovulation, it is necessary to inform the laboratory assistants in the laboratory where she will be tested.

Can an hCG blood test be wrong? It should be understood that no other drug is able to distort (that is, increase or decrease) the results of a blood test for hCG. Birth control pills also have absolutely no effect on the results obtained after taking a blood test for hCG and on the results of a pregnancy test.

Strange swings

Can hCG be wrong? Most likely, the person conducting the analysis can make a mistake. It is not necessary to exclude the human factor in this situation. The possibility of error is quite small. Quite rarely, there are situations when a laboratory worker mixes up two samples of biological material or misinterprets the results of the analysis.

If the increase in the concentration of gonadotropin in the blood stops, this may be evidence of the threat of spontaneous abortion.

Can hCG be wrong early on? A woman must understand that a false negative result is possible if she goes to the laboratory too early to get tested. Doctors suggest donating blood at least a week or even ten days after the date of the intended conception. And to improve the accuracy of the analysis, she gives up on an empty stomach in the morning.

If a woman is too worried about whether hCG can be wrong at an early stage, she can not do such an analysis, but just buy a test at the pharmacy. This strip should be dipped in urine for a few seconds, and then, after only twenty seconds, evaluate the result. If there is an increased concentration of hCG in the urine, the test will show two notorious stripes.

It is more accurate to establish whether pregnancy has occurred or not, only a doctor can, after conducting a medical examination. A woman should not run to the laboratory to do various tests and diagnose herself. The doctor will refer the patient for investigations if necessary.

But can hCG be wrong early on? Yes, it can happen. Sometimes it happens that the result of the analysis is negative, and the woman has some kind of anxiety. In this case, she can donate blood again after waiting one or two weeks. Thus, all suspicions will be removed. If the woman was not mistaken and she is really expecting a baby, then during these two weeks the concentration in the blood of the hormone will have time to increase.

Pregnant or not

Can hCG be wrong a week ahead? It is also possible, although not necessary. This was mentioned just above. You also need to know that in the case of an increase in the concentration of hCG in a woman's blood, this does not necessarily mean that she will become a mother soon. This may indicate that tumors develop in her body - benign or malignant. Because of this, the level of hCG sometimes rises in men.

By the way, womenthere is an increase in the concentration of gonadotropin if they are currently using hormonal pills (in this case, the analysis will not be informative enough) or have recently had an abortion.

Now let's look at an everyday situation. In men and women who are not pregnant, the concentration of hCG usually does not exceed 2.5-5 mU / ml. But after a whole week has passed after the implantation of the embryo into the uterine wall, the figure will already be about 100-350 mU / ml. Until about the twentieth week of the "interesting situation", the concentration of gonadotropin in the blood of a woman will increase, and then gradually decrease.

Can hCG be wrong? The accuracy of this analysis is quite high and the probability of errors after a misinterpretation of the result or its incorrect implementation is minimal.

What about IVF

Thirty or forty years ago, the so-called "test-tube babies" seemed to many some kind of fantastic creatures. But today on the planet there are several million people who exist precisely thanks to IVF. When using this method, fertilization itself occurs outside the female body, as it would be with a standard, natural conception, but in the external environment, that is, outside it.

This is perhaps the last chance for families who have severe forms of infertility and are not able to become parents in the usual way even with a great desire. If earlier the spouses had to come to terms with this pain or takea baby from an orphanage, now a loving couple has a real opportunity to give birth and raise their own, namely their own baby.

Of course, the IVF procedure cannot give a 100% guarantee of the expected pregnancy, but it is a real chance for a happy ending.

Women who are unable to conceive normally and need to resort to the option of in vitro fertilization often worry if hCG can go wrong after IVF. Indeed, in this case, everything happens not quite as usual, not as usual. That is why potential mothers are tormented by the question: did everything go smoothly, did everything work out as desired?

Every one and a half to three days, the level of gonadotropin will increase after in vitro fertilization. To determine its norm, doctors use both standard, ordinary tables, and special ones, taking into account the age of the small embryo and the day on which it was implanted.

The first time the test for the level of gonadotropin is carried out, as a rule, on the fourteenth day after fertilization. If the value is 100 mU / ml, then everything went well and pregnancy occurred. If this indicator is below 25 mU / ml, this will be a hint that, unfortunately, conception did not occur.

What can be said in conclusion? In trying to answer the question about the possible error of a blood test, we found that there are many factors that affect the reliability of a laboratory test. It all starts with the correct preparation of a woman for the moment of taking the necessary material and ends with the potential of the laboratory,which is selected, the level of qualification of the doctor and laboratory assistant. The patient's history also plays an important role: that is, whether she recently had a miscarriage, when the woman ovulated, whether she is taking any medications, and the like. It is necessary to come for a consultation with the attending doctor, who will correctly interpret the result of the analysis; if necessary, do it again; undergo additional research if necessary.