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Pregnancy Testing

A pregnancy test, to determione if someone is pregnant, is usually done on a sample of blood or urine. The test detects the presence of a hormone called Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) which is present in the urine and blood of a pregnant woman 10 days after conception, or 6-12 days after fertilization. A self-administered pregnancy kit, which can be purchased in a pharmacy or drug store, can also be used to check for pregnancy.

Wait for at least 3 minutes for the pregnancy kit to produce a resultWaiting for the pregnancy kit to produce a result

Equipment required: For a blood test: 3 cc to 5 cc syringe, cotton balls, alcohol, tourniquet, blood test tube, and a test tube holder. For a urine test: urine container or collection cup, and tissue paper. For a self-test: pregnancy kit, dropper, collection cup and tissue.

Procedure (blood test): The medical technologist will check for your name. The area near the vein (where blood will be drawn) will be cleansed with a cotton ball with alcohol. A tourniquet will be wrapped around the forearm (near the site of the vein where blood will be drawn). The medical technologist will ask you to close the fist. The medical technologist will draw blood from the vein with the use of a syringe. The patient can open fist. The blood will be placed in a tube for testing. The results may be available within an hour, up to several days.



Procedure (Urine test): Wash hands thoroughly before collecting urine. Clean the surrounding area of the genitalia. Collect midstream urine and make sure that the urine will not be contaminated with pubic hair or tissue paper. After collecting, cover the container and submit it to the laboratory. Double check the name, age and gender as well as the date written on the container.

Procedure (self-test): Prepare the pregnancy kit. Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water. Collect urine using the collection cup. Get urine from the cup using the dropper and instill some drops onto the pregnancy kit. Wait for at least three minutes for the pregnancy kit to absorb urine and produce a result.

Result: The results will either show a positive or negative result only. For the Pregnancy Kit Test: 2 lines mean pregnancy; a single line means that the woman is not pregnant.



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