Here's Why You Really Don't Want To Take A Pregnancy Test Before Your First Missed Period
Trying to get pregnant is an exciting time in a woman's life, but it is also anxiety-inducing especially when you're on the two-week wait. You'd want to know the soonest possible if it's the month that you finally get the big, fat positive. It is normal to feel tempted to take a pregnancy test before your missed period, especially when you're having early pregnancy signs.
Most pregnancy tests in the market claim that you can know you're pregnant as early as five days before you first missed period, but it's all just a marketing tactic. Dr. Daniela Anne Carusi, M.D., director of gynecology and surgical obstetrics at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, is strongly suggests that you should not take any sort of test before you miss your period.
According to Dr. Carusi, the risk for normal, healthy women to lose a pregnancy extremely early - as in, the first two weeks after conception - is high, about 25 percent. However, if you choose to wait after your missed period, the pregnancy loss rate goes down to 15 percent. Carusi says this is normal. It happens to a lot of women without them ever realizing it. It can be devastating if you're hopeful to conceive, because you'll end up thinking that you have miscarried.
Most women would think that something is wrong with them when this happens. In reality, it is actually a good sign if you get pregnant and lose it before your missed period. “It tells the fertility doctor that the egg and sperm got together and it implanted in the uterus,” Dr. Carusi assures. The next attempt at pregnancy could be successful, given that the patients already know they can conceive.
There's no denying that trying to conceive can be suspenseful, but it doesn't hurt to wait the extra five days. That way, you could save yourself the potential heartache of knowing that you've lost the baby. “I’d be hesitant to tell a patient it’s ever a good thing to take a test that early,” Dr. Carusi says. Not even if you experience a couple of early pregnancy symptoms, or before you take a shot of alcohol. According to her, there is no solid evidence or medical research that says doing a lifestyle change before your missed period has a better impact on the pregnancy.
Now if you really feel like you can't resist, think about how you'll feel if the result ends up being negative. If a negative test doesn't bother you and you have extra cash to spare on tests, then by all means, go ahead. But if a negative test will just devastate you, spare yourself the heartache, keep the cash, and wait until you're late.
