Urine pregnancy test is the home pregnancy test you take for detecting pregnancy.
There are two ways of detecting the hCG hormone.
Hcg levels in serum (blood) are higher than in urine. Thus it is easier to detect pregnancy by pregnancy blood test.
Pregnancy blood test can be as early as 2-3 days after fertilization.
Urine pregnancy test kits require a concentration of hCG that may take few days from implantation as the urine’s hCG levels are low.
Urine pregnancy test CPT code
While you may not find a urine pregnancy test confusing, a lab may have a lot of urine samples. And even urine test during pregnancy is not only for pregnancy detection. A pregnancy test may be a 24-hour urine test during pregnancy for diagnosis of conditions like preeclampsia or toxemia.
It can be tragic if a urine sample for diabetes test gets a false negative pregnancy test report!
Therefore, to avoid confusion, there is a code system.
CPT code for urine pregnancy test
The CPT code 81025 is for urine pregnancy test.
What does CPT code mean?
A CPT code means Current Procedural Terminology for medical procedures. The American Medical Association maintains it.
The CPT Code 81025 comes in the category of urinalysis procedures.
There are different CPT codes for every test from semen samples to tissue cultures.
What does CPT code 81025 mean?
CPT code 81025 means urine pregnancy test by visual color comparison method. CPT code for urine pregnancy test is like a tag for the sample to go in for pregnancy detection.
What are blood pregnancy test and urine pregnancy test?
A blood pregnancy test detects the level of hCG present in your blood. A urine pregnancy test does the same thing in your urine.
Doctors perform blood pregnancy test. Blood pregnancy test takes time and is expensive. They can detect pregnancy earlier.
Urine pregnancy test is cheaper and doesn’t require any professional expertise.
Qualitative pregnancy test
Urine pregnancy test is also called Qualitative Pregnancy Test because it only detects whether your urine has hCG or not.
The answer to ‘Am I pregnant?’ will only be yes or no.
Qualitative pregnancy tests are the home pregnancy tests you take after missing your period.
Quantitative pregnancy test
Blood pregnancy test is a Quantitative Pregnancy Test. In this case, the accuracy rates are higher.
The amount of hCG present in blood tells the duration of pregnancy. Quantitative pregnancy tests are confirmatory pregnancy tests.
What is an hCG urine test?
An hCG urine test is a pregnancy test that uses urine hCG levels to find out if you are pregnant. The correct term for Urine pregnancy test is hCG urine pregnancy test.
Types of Urine pregnancy test
There are various types of home pregnancy tests. The different kinds of urine pregnancy test include:
- Traditional pregnancy tests: The standard pregnancy tests use an hCG strip to detect pregnancy. They are either dip strip or midstream. You have to dip the hCG strip in urine collected in a cup for Dip strip hCG pregnancy tests. Midstream pregnancy tests are directly soaked in the urine stream.
- Early pregnancy test: Early pregnancy tests can detect pregnancy way earlier than other HPT because they can detect an even smaller amount of hCG elevation.
- Rapid response pregnancy test: Rapid response pregnancy test gives the pregnancy test results faster within few seconds. It takes about 2 minutes to show the results. But rapid response pregnancy tests make it even quicker.
- Digital pregnancy test: Digital pregnancy test detects hCG in urine and displays the results digitally.
- One step pregnancy test: One Step Pregnancy Test as the name suggests are Single Step Pregnancy Test. They are generally non-digital pregnancy test.
Pregnancy tests with weeks calculator
Pregnancy Test with weeks calculator is an advanced pregnancy test. It can even calculate the duration of your pregnancy.
What is the use of hCG urine pregnancy test?
An hCG urine pregnancy test helps to find out if you are pregnant. There are many reasons for a missed period. PCOD, cervical cancer, and endometriosis can delay period.
This test helps to find out whether the reason for nausea and other symptoms is pregnancy.
How does urine pregnancy test work?
The principle is simple. It detects hCG levels in urine by hCG antibodies.
When a woman gets pregnant, the embryo cells implant in the uterus. Once the embryo attaches in the womb the placenta rapidly forms hCG. This is the pregnancy hormone that comes in your urine. Urine test uses this hCG to detect pregnancy.
The hCG strip in pregnancy test has antibodies for hCG. They are detector particles that can detect hCG. If they detect hCG in your urine the dye present in them shows color.
This is the Test line and shows that you are pregnant.
How to use a urine pregnancy test?
You need to follow the instructions of pregnancy test carefully. Accuracy depends on how well you perform the pregnancy test.
How to perform an hCG urine pregnancy test?
- Time your pregnancy test: It is essential to wait for enough time to allow your body to produce hCG hormone. It is best to take the pregnancy test after two weeks from missed period.
- Collect early morning urine: Early morning urine has a higher concentration of hCG making it more probable to detect pregnancy accurately.
- Follow the instructions for exposing the hCG strip of PT.
- Wait for the results to form and match them with the key given on the kit.
How accurate are urine pregnancy tests?
Urine pregnancy tests claim accuracy rates of 99% and even above. However, on an average a home pregnancy test is only 97% accurate because a lot of factors influence a pregnancy test. Human error is the biggest drawback of this test.
Top 10 tips to do an accurate urine pregnancy test
- Take the pregnancy test after you get implantation bleeding and cramps. It will be around seven days after conception.
- Don’t drink caffeinated products before taking a pregnancy test.
- Use a clean cup and collect the first-morning urine sample.
- Use a pregnancy test that suits your needs.
- Do not allow the pregnancy test to stand for more than 10 minutes.
- Time everything during pregnancy test accurately. The exposure time of pregnancy test should be exactly as mentioned on the kit.
- Keep the hCG strip untouched.
- Buy pregnancy tests after checking their expiry. An expired pregnancy test will not work and give false test results.
- Do not drop the test and keep it away from sunlight.
- If you get different results from different pregnancy test kits, then get a pregnancy blood test.
How early can pregnancy be detected by urine test?
Urine tests require waiting for at least two weeks after a missed period for most accurate results.
There are pregnancy tests in the market claiming that they can detect pregnancy six days before missed period. It increases the chance of getting a false pregnancy test.
A false negative pregnancy test can jeopardize your pregnancy. If believing the wrong result you start taking birth control pills, then your pregnancy might terminate.
Urine test for pregnancy can detect it about a week after conception. The earliest you can take the pregnancy test is after you see symptoms of early pregnancy in you.
Urine pregnancy test results
Results of hCG urine test mean only two things. Either you are pregnant or you are not.
What if I get a positive hCG urine pregnancy test?
If you get a positive hCG urine pregnancy test that means that you are pregnant. A positive pregnancy test says that your urine has hCG levels of 25 mIU/mL or above.
What if I get a negative hCG urine pregnancy test?
A negative hCG urine test means that you are not pregnant. The symptoms you see are not due to pregnancy. There may be other health complications for missing periods.
False positive urine pregnancy test
A false positive pregnancy test result is when you are not pregnant, but test results are positive. This can be very depressing to find later that all your excitement was in vain.
Reasons for false positive pregnancy test include medications and ectopic pregnancy. You can get an evaporation line in pregnancy test and assume it to be a positive pregnancy test.
False negative urine pregnancy test
A false negative pregnancy test is when you are pregnant, but the test is negative. The reason could be that you took the test too early. Other reasons for this include using a very dilute urine sample.
Reasons for false negative pregnancy test also include using an expired pregnancy test.
24-hour urine test pregnancy
There are other prenatal urine tests. They are for diagnosis of preeclampsia or toxemia. It is the condition of high blood pressure in pregnancy.
A symptom of preeclampsia is the abnormal occurrence of proteins in urine. Preeclampsia can jeopardize your unborn baby during labor.
24-hour urine test during pregnancy is collecting urine over 24 hours. The doctor will give you a big jar for 24-hour urine test pregnancy.
After this, there will be a test for proteins present in the urine. It is crucial that you don’t spill sample for this test. If you drop the sample, then the test will not be valid.
Urine pregnancy test is the first test for pregnancy. In any case, whether pregnancy test is successful to detect pregnancy or not, you’ll have to take a pregnancy blood test if you have pregnancy symptoms.