Should you take the pregnancy blood test or a home pregnancy test kit?  There are a lot of ways offered today for you to know if you are pregnant or not.  Pregnancy is something which you, as a woman, have to be careful about.  Being pregnant means you have to take care of your health more than ever.  This is why it is important to know if you are pregnant as soon as possible, by taking pregnancy tests to ensure not only your health, but also the health of your baby.  But which pregnancy test is more accurate?

Taking a home pregnancy test is cheaper and faster, but the results can be misleading – especially if you took the test too soon.  In fact there is a larger chance of getting false results with the home pregnancy test due to human carelessness such as not following the proper instructions, or, if the strip is not dipped in the proper way.  In fact, after taking a home pregnancy test, you are advised to confirm the results with a blood test.

The pregnancy blood test is actually simple and is done by taking a tube of blood from the vein.  The tube then is sent to the laboratory for examination.  The results can take from a minimum of hours to a day maximum.

For greater accuracy, it is best to take a pregnancy blood test because it measures the exact amount of hormones in the blood.  This test can trace even the smallest amounts of hormones, which make it very accurate.  It is also able to determine the approximate age of the fetus, and the progress of your pregnancy.

Aside from checking your hormone levels to determine pregnancy, there are a number of other pregnancy blood tests that may be performed throughout the pregnancy.  This is to check the mother’s blood type, determine if you have a sexually transmitted disease, anemia, and any digestive illness, and it detects the presence of antibodies for diseases that can be very dangerous in pregnancy.

This type of test is more accurate than the urine test since it confirms traces of HCG from a week earlier in the blood than in the urine.  Urine tests usually take 14-16 days after ovulation to give an accurate result, while the pregnancy blood test only takes a week after ovulation to give you an accurate result.

Although the blood test is highly accurate, the results can be affected when you are taking fertility drugs, or if the test was performed too soon, causing the hormone levels to be too low to detect.  To determine if the timing is just right for taking the test, Doctors prefer to wait until you have missed your period to make sure that the results will be 100% accurate.

Remember, if you are experiencing symptoms of pregnancy, like a delayed menstrual period, vomiting, pelvic pain, breast tenderness and irregular spotting, you must get a pregnancy blood test done to confirm or rule out pregnancy.