Drinking alcohol can have a negative impact on your health, especially when taken in excess. Does this mean alcohol can also affect a pregnancy test? I have heard of misconceptions surrounding pregnancy and use of alcohol.
You might be a heavy drinker, or maybe you suspect you are pregnant and the previous day you took a glass of wine. You are now debating on whether to take the pregnancy test or not. You worry that if you take the test, it might not come out accurate.
Relax I’ll give you all the information you need to know before you take the pregnancy test.
Fertilization
Science tells us that for fertilization to take place we need to be fertile at the time of copulation. It merely means ovulation has to occur for fertilization to be a success. The ovum can stay unfertilized in the fallopian tube for three days.
The sperms can survive in the woman's body upto three days after copulation. If intercourse takes place two days before or two days after ovulation, there is a 99% chance of fertilization to take place.
You can’t tell exactly when you got pregnant, but you could say which week you got pregnant based on your ovulation.
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Production
When fertilization takes place the fused gametes (ovum and sperm) move to the uterus where it will be implanted. It takes two to three days for the fertilized egg to reach the uterus.
Cell division occurs at the rate of once in every 12 hours. During the cell division is when the trophoblast forms which is responsible for the release of human chorionic gonadotropin hormone(HCG).
Presence Of HCG In Blood And Urine
It takes a total of 7-10 days for the hormone to be detected in the blood and not in urine. If you are doing a blood test before the seventh day, it is possible for the result to come out negative but when you do the test on the seventh day and above, the result will be positive.
If you are doing a urine test, you’ll have to wait for 14 days so you can do the test as the HCG is not present in urine until the 14 days.
Reasons Why Alcohol Does
If you are not getting a positive result its either you’ve done it early, or you are not pregnant. Alcohol has no relationship with HCG as gonadotropin hormone is produced by the fertilized embryo.
The only fact I know is alcohol can affect pregnancy and disrupt the normal development of fetus inside of you. It can cause miscarriage, premature birth, and fetal deformities.
Birth control, over the counter medicine, alcohol, any abused drug, and antibiotics will not affect the results of a pregnancy test, but the only medication that has an impact on the result of a pregnancy test is drugs that contain HCG.
These drugs will give false positive pregnancy test, and you might think you are pregnant, but after some time you find out you are not. You might even think the test kit you used was faulty.
If you want to take a pregnancy test, it is important for you to ensure you know the compounds of any drugs you are using to ensure you do not have HCG in your blood.
Some fertility medications have HCG in them and if you are under fertility treatment ensure it doesn’t have HCG in them before you take the pregnancy test to avoid false results.
In case your pregnancy test came out negative and when you did another confirmation test and found you are pregnant only four things might be possible.
- You didn’t read and follow the instruction as required.
- You took the test early before the HCG presented itself in urine.
- Your genetic makeup is different, and it is not apparent when your friend took it early and got a positive result it means you’ll also get a positive result. The HCG levels are different from one person to the other.
- The home pregnancy test kits vary with brand, and some brands are more effective than others by detecting a small amount of HCG. It is possible you have used a brand that is not able to detect low amounts of gonadotropin hormones.
According to a study carried out by researchers in 2004, it was proved only one HPT could detect low levels of HCG in the first day of the missed menstrual period. All others had an accuracy level of 85%.
Does Alcohol Affect Pregnancy Test Really?
There you go I have given you detailed information on whether alcohol does affect a pregnancy test. Even though alcohol does not affect a pregnancy test, it will affect your unborn child, and you should avoid taking alcohol at all cost. Do you have more information on this topic? Please share and let us help one another.
