If the day of your expected period comes and goes, it’s time to pee on a stick. Go figure. It’s almost 2020, and we have Alexa and self-driving cars, but no one has designed a more elegant home pregnancy test. Despite the slight “ew” factor, modern pregnancy tests are more accurate than ever.
Most tests can detect rising levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), the pregnancy hormone, on the first day of your missed period. If you get a negative result and your period hasn’t shown up in a few days, however, it’s worth testing again. Sometimes, it takes a while for hCG levels to increase enough to show up on home pregnancy tests.
When you do get that plus sign or double line, CONGRATULATIONS! You have your big fat positive, and you’re officially pregnant. Just to confirm, book an appointment with your OB-GYN. Even though you may have already started taking a prenatal vitamin, if you haven’t yet, now is the time to start.