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Home › Articles › Tests and Procedures › Jumping the Gun

Jumping the Gun

Premature Home Pregnancy Testing

By Carma Haley Shoemaker

Pages:  1  2  3  4  

The Sooner the Better?

According to Dr. Brasner, an overwhelming number of doctors think early pregnancy detection is not a good idea. "Many doctors don't like the idea of a woman taking a pregnancy test at all before she actually misses a period," says Dr. Brasner. "Nearly four out of five doctors – 79 percent – polled in a survey commissioned by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) meeting prefer that women not use a home pregnancy test up to four days before their expected menstrual period. Clinical testing shows almost half of pregnant women – 48 percent – will get a false negative response four days before their period is due."

"I had [an early detection pregnancy test] done at a doctor's office that showed up negative," says Karen Lovett of Jasper, Ala. "This was the first part of June, and looking back I was about 2 weeks pregnant at the time. They even did a blood test that showed up negative. My hormones weren't high enough to even register on the test. My daughter was born the following February."

In fact, 84 percent of OB/GYNs from the same survey stated there could be potential health risks associated with receiving false negative results on home pregnancy tests. Those risks include:

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