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Should You Take More Than One Pregnancy Test?

Trying to figure out if you're pregnant or not can be an anxiety-provoking process. You've analyzed every bodily symptom you've had in the last two weeks, and now that your period is officially late, it's time to take that at-home pregnancy test. While you wait two minutes to see whether or not those two pink lines will show, you might be wondering, should I take more than one pregnancy test if I think I'm pregnant?

As Mayo Clinic suggested, it can be nerve-racking to take a home pregnancy test, especially if you're unsure if the results are reliable. Many tests claim to be accurate on the first day of your missed period, but how accurate are they? It could be more accurate one day after your missed period, Mayo Clinic noted, and even more accurate a week after your missed period.

According to the Office on Women's Health (OWH), since at-home pregnancy tests rely on detecting human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), the hormone your body produces after successful implantation, it's often better to wait a few days to take the test. The earlier you take the test, the harder it could be for the test to detect the hCG in your urine. In fact, as OWH mentioned, taking the test too early could cause a false negative, as many women's bodies produce hCG slower or later than others.

Similarly, US News & World Report reported that testing too early could also result in a false positive. The positive test result of the egg and sperm together doesn't mean the implantation is going to last, the article mentioned, and almost 50 percent of the time, it doesn't hold after two weeks.

According to the Food & Drug Administration, if you do end up testing early, it's suggested that you test again after another few days or weeks in order to confirm your result. At-home pregnancy tests are considered to be about 97 percent accurate if used correctly, the American Pregnancy Association noted, but there is always room for error. Taking more than one pregnancy test, up to two weeks after your missed period, could provide the best at-home results. Making an appointment with your doctor to confirm your results via a blood test will guarantee you the most accurate result.