When to take a pregnancy test

Generality

The pregnancy test is a tool that allows you to check if a woman is pregnant.
The use of this evaluation is indicated when there are the first signs of a possible conception, including a delay in the onset of menstruation.

The tests to ascertain or exclude the onset of a pregnancy are mainly of two types: the first is the kit for home use, which can be found in pharmacies and can be done directly at home on the urine, to obtain an "indication on" conception occurred; the second is the blood test performed in the laboratory and necessary to confirm the result with certainty.
In both cases, the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin (beta-HCG), a hormone secreted in the maternal organism during pregnancy, is verified. Beta-HCG can in fact be detected, through urine or blood, approximately one week after conception (which occurs, however, within 24 hours of ovulation).

Human chorionic gonadotropin is produced by those pre-embryonic cells that will then give rise to the placenta, after implantation in the uterus of the fertilized egg.

For these reasons, the reliability of the results of the pregnancy tests is strongly influenced by the period in which the test takes place.