A woman’s hormonal background changes throughout the month; it is influenced by a huge number of factors, including the day of the cycle, contraceptives, stress and much more. Therefore, it is difficult to determine without special tests whether your hormonal levels are in order. For rapid diagnosis, home tests have been developed that allow you to determine ovulation and pregnancy. Everything seems simple, but women began to be interested in the question of whether ovulation tests can show pregnancy, or how it will behave if the egg is already fertilized.
What is ovulation?
This is a natural, monthly process through which a woman becomes capable of procreation. That is, this is the process of releasing the egg itself. It is there that conception should occur if a sperm is encountered on its way. Women who are in harmony with their body are able to feel the approach of ovulation. During this period, sexual desire intensifies, nature knows when to look for a partner, and there may be a slight sensation of pain in the ovaries. All this suggests that the right moment is approaching. To track this favorable period, you can use special tests. But the question is, can ovulation tests show pregnancy? Let's figure it out together.
How the ovulation test works
In order for an ovulation test to give reliable indicators and you can trust them, you need to understand what its work is based on. In theory, a test that is designed to determine the moment of ovulation should respond to an increase in luteinizing hormone (LH), and as pregnancy progresses, hCG increases, which is determined by the corresponding test. But the fact is that both of these hormones have a lot in common, and therefore an ovulation test may have a weak reaction in early pregnancy before your period is missed. But negative results of an ovulation test can also cast doubt on the absence of pregnancy, since conception has already occurred. You can accurately determine whether a woman is pregnant or not by waiting for the onset of menstruation, or after the first delay by taking an hCG test.
The ovulation test uses reagents that detect luteinizing hormone in the urine, the concentration of which reaches its maximum values when it leaves the ruptured follicle and when it is ready to conceive. This period takes 2 days, and the ovulation test during this period will show a positive result, that is, two bright stripes. During this time, an increase in the LH hormone can also be detected in the urine by dipping the test into it. This hormonal level remains constant for about 8 days and then begins to subside. If an ovulation test shows that luteinizing hormone has not increased, this may be one of the first signs of pregnancy. If the test shows pregnancy during ovulation, most likely not, since during pregnancy the level of another hormone is increased.
Cases when this happens are rare and have no scientific basis. Medical experts consider the appearance of two weak stripes in such situations to be an accident, occasionally occurring only in the early stages of pregnancy due to some similarity in the structure of these hormones. In order to determine the presence of pregnancy at home before the first delay after ovulation, it is better to purchase a test specially designed for this purpose, which already at this time can show the result by the presence of two stripes. Even after 1 day of delay, you can use a pregnancy test at home to determine with an accuracy of 98% whether conception has occurred or not. It must be borne in mind that although an ovulation test can show pregnancy, at least as an exception, the opposite option is impossible, that is, a pregnancy test will never show ovulation - even on its most accurate days.
How does an ovulation test work?
This is very important to determine the most favorable moment for conception. Many women who cannot get pregnant for a long time purchase these tests in large quantities, monitoring the approaching release of the egg every day. The principle of operation of this test is quite simple. The test strip measures the level of luteinizing hormone (LH) in the urine. Shortly before the follicle ruptures, the level of this hormone reaches its maximum level. As soon as you see 2 lines on the test, it means that ovulation will occur in about 12-48 hours. However, do not forget that any test can fail. Make sure that the brightness of the test strip does not differ from the control strip, otherwise the result can be considered unreliable. However, if a woman is planning to conceive, she is always interested in whether ovulation tests can show pregnancy. Numerous examples show that this is possible. Let's talk about this in more detail.
Conducting an ovulation test
There are a huge number of tests that can be used to determine ovulation. But regardless of their variety, they have the same principle of operation.
The result will be more truthful if you adhere to the following recommendations:
- For testing, it is best to use urine collected between 10 am and 8 pm.
- 2-3 hours before urine collection, it is advisable to reduce fluid intake.
- In the case of a classic test strip, lower it vertically into the container with urine up to the pointer. Hold for 5 seconds and place on a flat, dry surface. Evaluation of the result no later than 10 minutes from the moment of testing.
- If testing was carried out correctly, the control strip should appear first. Next to it there will be a second stripe: weak or bright in color. The result is considered positive if next to the control strip there is a strip of the same brightness or contrast.
- The presence of a bright strip next to the control one indicates that ovulation will take place within the next 24 hours.
Advice! It is advisable to test daily, starting on a certain day of the menstrual cycle, until the desired result appears on the test.
The day on which you need to start testing depends on the menstrual cycle of each individual woman. For example, if we are talking about a standard cycle of 28 days, the release of the egg occurs approximately on the 14-15th day. Therefore, it is advisable to start testing from day 10-12 of the cycle.
Some tips:
- It is highly undesirable to use morning urine for testing;
- tests should be carried out every day at the same time;
- to obtain the most reliable result, it is recommended to test twice a day – morning and evening, which will allow you not to miss the moment when the level of luteinizing hormone increases;
- Before using the test, be sure to read the instructions, since depending on the variety, the method of their use and interpretation of the result may differ.
If a pregnant woman uses an ovulation test
First of all, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that home tests are much less reliable than laboratory tests performed by doctors in the hospital. That is why quite often litmus tests can pass off one thing as another, pregnancy as ovulation, and vice versa.
Both ovulation and pregnancy are determined by the level of the hormone in the urine. Even though the hormones are different, such simple tests can easily be mistaken for one another. The surge of the hormone during ovulation and during conception looks about the same for them. That is why we can answer affirmatively to the question of whether ovulation tests can show pregnancy, but the reliability of such a method will always be in question.
Types of Ovulation Tests
- a strip strip (paper), which is simply immersed in urine for 10 seconds, the result is assessed within 10 minutes. The simplest and most inexpensive, but at the same time properly performs its task;
- test tablet with control windows - urine is dripped into one of the windows, and stripes appear in the other;
- jet test, which is simply placed under a stream of urine, the effective strips appear in a maximum of 3 minutes;
- the test is digital, highly accurate, assessing the concentration of LH in saliva.
Ovulation tests are not cheap. Therefore, just buy them and use them as a test for hCG to answer the question: “Can I confirm pregnancy in this way?” – it’s expensive, and the result is unreliable. But such a home assistant copes with determination of the favorable day for conception.
Different tests: what will we measure?
Theoretically, an ovulation test should only determine the maturation and release of the next egg. It is clear that if you are pregnant, this is impossible, but there is a huge amount of evidence that an ovulation test shows pregnancy much sooner than a specialized litmus test.
Sometimes women confuse these two types of tests; sometimes the pharmacy mistakenly sells them something that is not what they ask for. As a result, you can ask: can an ovulation test show pregnancy, and get an affirmative answer. While pregnant, many girls received a positive ovulation test. Others, out of curiosity, already knowing for sure about their pregnancy, checked the result of the ovulation test, and it also most often turns out to be positive.
Can an ovulation test show pregnancy?
Ovulation in a woman is a natural monthly phenomenon , due to which a woman can conceive and bear a child. Ovulation is the moment when the egg leaves the follicle.
If the latter meets the sperm, then conception occurs. If everything is normal in a woman’s body, she can feel ovulation approaching. At this time, as a rule, sexual desire increases (as intended by nature for procreation).
Mild pain in the ovaries is also possible. All this indicates the arrival of the right moment. To track ovulation, women who want to become pregnant can use tests that show its approach .
Ovulation tests are a fairly significant moment in identifying the right moment for conception. Many ladies who cannot get pregnant for a long period actively buy such tests, monitoring the moment of egg release every day. These products work on a fairly simple principle. The strip determines the level of luteinizing hormone LH . Before the follicle ruptures, the level of this hormone becomes maximum.
When you notice two noticeable lines, you know that ovulation will occur in approximately 12 to 48 hours. But we must not forget that failures are possible with any home diagnostic tools. The test strip should be similar in brightness to the control strip. Otherwise, the reliability of the result can be doubted. Many pregnant women have heard that you can see confirmation of pregnancy on an ovulation test. Is this true?
Any tests for home use have a significantly lower level of accuracy than tests performed in a laboratory. Therefore, it may be that the ovulation test will show as pregnancy, and vice versa. Both of these conditions are determined by the level of the hormone in the urine. These hormones are different, but tests that are simple in nature may well confuse them. An active increase in the concentration of a substance, as during ovulation, and after the fact of conception, looks identical . Therefore, in theory, an ovulation test can show conception, but you definitely shouldn’t trust what you see one hundred percent.
In theory, an ovulation test detects only eggs that are mature and ready to be released. Clearly this is not possible if the woman is pregnant, but the belief that an ovulation test can be used to diagnose pregnancy is quite common. Moreover, it is believed that it shows faster results than a test designed specifically for pregnancy.
Sometimes a woman herself can confuse the test and mistakenly buy something that is not what she needs. Many girls who are pregnant have seen a positive result on an ovulation test. Others carried out such diagnostics for an experiment, already knowing that they were pregnant. And for many, pregnancy actually showed.
However, given all this, you need to understand that a positive result of an ovulation test in a pregnant woman is only a consequence of its imperfect design, so you should not trust it.
- A test that becomes positive in a pregnant woman cannot become negative. If this happens, you should inform your doctor. An ovulation test is sometimes able to demonstrate that conception has occurred only because the luteinizing hormone has a certain similarity with hCG in terms of the structure and formula they have. And the test, along with a high level of sensitivity, also has a considerable error rate .
- A pregnancy test and an ovulation test are not interchangeable ! Any doctor will tell you that an ovulation test is less sensitive than a pregnancy test, so you can argue with its results. To gain confidence, wait for the delay. Therefore, a pregnancy test is not used to detect the time of ovulation, since it cannot respond to an increase in lutein, which is not as strong as a surge in hCG.
But an ovulation test does sometimes show two lines in a woman who is pregnant, much earlier than a pregnancy test , until the moment of delay. And many women trust this diagnostic method, considering it quite accurate, and using it even earlier than the earliest pregnancy test. It should be noted that the use of such a test to determine the fact of conception is not very economically feasible: an ovulation test costs significantly more than all tests to detect pregnancy.
As we understand, you can see the result on this test, but its accuracy remains open. So is it possible to be sure of the veracity of the result obtained? No, it’s impossible, because a special strip is intended for a different purpose, so it simply cannot one hundred percent accurately diagnose something that is not within its competence.
To detect approaching ovulation, tests with special impregnation are used to determine the concentration of LH in the urine. It is at the moment when the egg is released that its level will be highest. If you see two lines on the test, this means that due to the onset of ovulation, now is a very good time to conceive a child.
To identify the occurrence of conception, other tests are used; impregnation in them shows sensitivity specifically in relation to hCG . You can get the result in the form of two clear stripes from the moment of the delay - this will be a real confirmation of your pregnancy.
That is, it is clear that pregnancy tests and products for diagnosing ovulation react to various hormones. Therefore, none of them can fully replace the other, and there is no point in hoping for a result that gave you the wrong test.
Any specialist will be surprised by the question of whether ovulation can occur during pregnancy. The answer is strictly negative, because if pregnancy has occurred, then this mechanism has already coped with its functions. The egg has already been fertilized, entered the uterus, and now, until the woman gives birth to a child, the formation of new eggs is simply impossible .
False indicators
Before you say whether an ovulation test can show pregnancy, you should warn that this is in any case the result of an imperfect diagnostic system, which means that such indicators cannot be trusted. If you are pregnant, the test result, once positive, will not turn negative. If this happens, you should immediately tell your doctor about it.
In this case, an ovulation test can show pregnancy, but only because human chorionic gonadotropin and luteinizing hormone have similar formulas, and the test is not only highly sensitive, but also has a fairly large error.
Mechanism of action
Today, every woman can buy ovulation and pregnancy tests, which can help identify changes occurring in the body. In particular, a positive ovulation test reflects a change in the level of luteinizing hormone after the egg is released from the ovary and becomes negative again at the end of this period, provided there are no pathologies in the woman’s body.
In turn, a pregnancy test, which is also carried out in urine, becomes positive by detecting a special hormone that is produced in large quantities by the pregnant woman’s body. It is indicated when the next menstruation is delayed.
As practice shows, an ovulation test is used when it is necessary to accurately determine the time favorable for conception. True, at the same time, at the same time, experts recommend measuring basal temperature and doing an ultrasound of the pelvis.
One instead of the other
However, the situation is different with the second test strip. Whether an ovulation test shows pregnancy has been discussed on all forums for many years. Yes, it really does. Therefore, it is possible to use it to diagnose conception, although it is not practical from an economic point of view. The cost of such a test is several times higher than the price of the most expensive pregnancy test.
However, it is the sensitivity of this strip that determines its popularity among women. We have already said that its sensitivity is much higher, therefore, answering the question of whether an ovulation test shows pregnancy, it should be noted that it can show the result long before the first day of the delay, which can be so difficult to wait for due to constant experience.
When to take an ovulation test
It is important to do an ovulation test correctly
Before describing when to do testing to determine the ovulatory period, a few words should be said about what kind of process this is. Ovulation is the release of the ovary from a mature egg, that is, ready for fertilization. The girl needs to be sexually active for 2 days after completing this process.
If conception is not carried out during this period, and the egg remains unfertilized, then she will die. Then you will have to wait for a new maturation to get pregnant.
In addition, those girls who had sex 3 days before the release of a mature egg from the ovary also have a chance to become happy mothers. The approximate time of ovulation is 14 days from the 1st day of the monthly cycle. However, this is not always the case. The process depends on many different factors. Special testing, which can be easily and quickly carried out at home, will help you find out exactly about the onset of the ovulatory period.
How does he work:
The mechanism of its operation is simple. Once during the entire monthly cycle, one (rarely two or more) structural components—a follicle—matures in the ovarian cavity. At this time, the production of estrogens, hormones of the female body, occurs in their cells. Their number depends on the size of the follicle. The more impressive its size, the greater the amount of estrogens produced.
When there are enough hormones for ovulation, LH - luteinizing hormone - will be released. After its release, the follicle ruptures. This happens over the next 2 days.
So, the moment when LH levels in the urine increases sharply, and the test will demonstrate the appearance of a second strip. It is easy to use and the likelihood of making a mistake is quite small.
So, when should you do ovulation testing? If your cycle is always the same, then it is preferable to do the test 14 days before the expected day of your period. If the duration of the cycle varies each month, then the study is carried out on the basis of the shortest one over the last 6 months.
Hormone is different from hormone
Once we have determined that we can get an answer about our interesting situation using an ovulation test, the question arises about the accuracy of this method. That is, it is logical to ask, does an ovulation test always show pregnancy? No, this method does not provide 100% accuracy, because initially this litmus strip has other tasks. In order for you to be able to determine the onset of ovulation, a test is used that is impregnated with reagents to detect the LH hormone in the urine. Its maximum concentration occurs in the urine precisely during the release of the egg. If you get clear two stripes, it means that ovulation has already occurred and the optimal time for conception has arrived.
To determine the interesting position, it is necessary to use another test impregnated with reagents that react to the hCG hormone. From the first day of the delay, you can get clear two stripes, which indicates that you are really pregnant. Thus, it is clear that these two tests respond to different hormones, and therefore one will not replace the other. Ask any physiologist or doctor about whether ovulation occurs during pregnancy, and get ready to be very surprised. Of course not, the tasks of this mechanism have already been completed. The egg was released into the fallopian tube, was fertilized and implanted in the uterus. A new egg will not form until birth.
Is it possible to determine pregnancy with an ovulation test?
To determine ovulation, tests are needed that react to the luteinizing hormone (LH) found in a woman’s urine. In the female body, its concentration reaches its peak at the moment the egg is released and passes through the fallopian tubes. This process can take up to 24 hours. During this period, the probability of fertilization of the egg is as high as possible, and, as a result, the ovulation test will show two stripes.
If it is necessary to determine whether conception has occurred, then a test that already reacts to human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) will be needed.
With its help, already in the first days of the delay, you can determine whether conception has occurred or not. Both tests are used in a similar way, but respond to completely different hormones. One contains reagents for detecting LH, and the other for hCG. This means that a pregnancy detection device will not help determine a favorable date for conception, just as a device designed to detect ovulation will not help determine pregnancy.
What results can you get?
You should not use an ovulation test during pregnancy. The accuracy of this method is zero. The bright two stripes that a pregnant woman receives in the early stages is nothing more than a mistake. Such diagnostics are of no value, and after 4 weeks this method stops working, that is, the test stops showing results.
However, the reliability of such studies should generally be questioned. If your body functions like a clock, then you yourself will perfectly understand when you are ovulating, and will also feel the first signs of pregnancy. If various malfunctions and irregularities occur, then you should not trust such test strips, you need to consult a doctor.
Let's sum it up
An ovulation test is not intended to determine pregnancy, no matter how much you may be told otherwise. What many women have noted is nothing more than an accident, an error, a failure in diagnosis, which most often happens in the early stages of pregnancy. To be completely confident in the results, you need to wait until the first day of your delay and take a pregnancy test. Another way to reliably determine an interesting situation is to get tested at a clinic. Therefore, if you are asked whether an ovulation test shows pregnancy, feel free to answer no.
How does a pregnancy test work?
The classic device, designed for home use, has the same operating principle as a medical test, but with less sensitivity. If the doctor in the clinic is able to diagnose your condition already on the 8th day after potential conception, then the home test works either from the 1st day of menstrual delay (the most common case of a woman trying to find out why her cycle has gone wrong), or from 10-14 days after the expected conception. To carry out the test, the woman needs to immerse the device in fresh morning urine.
- Pregnancy (or its absence) is determined by the level of the hormone gonadotropin, or “hCG” for short, which is synthesized by the body in large quantities on the 6th day (less often, with a delay of 1-2 days) after fertilization of the egg.
There are usually no problems with reading the results: 2 clear, even stripes indicate a positive answer, 1 - a negative answer. The absence of any markers indicates a violation in the inspection or poor quality of the test. However, the option of low brightness of markers, or the so-called, is not excluded (and is extremely common). 1.5 stripes: when 1 of them is saturated, and the neighboring one is barely visible. Some women believe that this could be a sign of ovulation, but can a pregnancy test reflect this?
