How soon to take a pregnancy test

Hi all, I used to be a regular poster, Munchkin is now 2 1/2, so I just
occasionally lurk now.

I'm wondering how long after possible conception you should test to be sure
of getting the correct answer. I know you can test the day your period is
due, however, my cycles are all over the place, sometimes 2 months,
sometimes 1, I just can't judge them at all. I never know when to expect
it, till it's here (I miss BCP's for that)

So, assuming that the 15th was BD day (and it was) how long should I wait to
expect the answer to be true. I've already take a FRER test on day 13 after
BD and it was negative, I want to use the other one on a day I can be sure
to get a true answer. I don't want to risk a false negative because I
tested too early, and then be thinking I'm not pregnant, when I really am.

For the record, I have no idea how long into my cycle the 15th was either,
it might have been day 14, might have been day 21, I really don't know, I'm
thinking longer since I don't remember my period being recent, but given my
erratic cycles, I can't count on predictable ovulation anyway.


*******
The 3 sentences that will get you through life.
#1, cover for me
#2, oh, good idea boss.
#3, It was like that when I got here
-Homer Simpson

Because you have no idea when and if you ovulated, AND you have no idea what
cycle day you are currently on, or what cycle day you had sex on, testing
won't tell you much at this point. Providing that you had sex on the same
day that you ovulated, you can test around 12-18 days later and know that
the test will be fairly reliable. BUT, you aren't in that position. You
can't just say "you can test X number of days after having sex" because when
you have sex isn't nearly as important as when you ovulated. You can have
sex every day of a 40 day cycle, but if you don't ovulate, you ain't getting
pregnant. So first you sort of need to pinpoint your cycles and ovulation.
If your cycles are very irregular, not just by days per cycle, but weeks or
months, then you definately need to read Taking Charge of Your Fertility, by
Toni Weschler, and start charting your temps. It may well be that you
aren't ovulating. Or, you may be ovulating early some cycles and later on
others. In general, women get their period about 14 days after they
ovulate, so if you ovulate on cd 18, you are going to have a 32 day cycle,
and if you ovulate on cd 30, you are going to have a 44 day cycle, give or
take. So you can see that without the data point of ovulation pinpointed,
you're really in the dark.

If you did happen to ovulate within a day or two of April 15th when you had
sex, then you should be pretty accurate at this point. If it's negative,
you still may have to wait some number of weeks or days until your period
shows up, because as I said above, regardless of when you had sex, if you
ovulated on the 25th, your period isn't going to come until May 9th, for
example. But if you test negative two-three weeks after you last had sex,
and it's negative, then you can be pretty sure that you are not pregnant.

The problem comes in that if you had sex after that, and happened to have
ovulated after that, then you can certainly test negative while still
actually being pregnant. So pinpointing ovulation is crucial.
--

Jamie
Earth Angels:
Taylor Marlys -- 01/03/03
Addison Grace -- 09/30/04

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"Stormlady" wrote in message
...
Hi all, I used to be a regular poster, Munchkin is now 2 1/2, so I just
occasionally lurk now.

I'm wondering how long after possible conception you should test to be
sure of getting the correct answer. I know you can test the day your
period is due, however, my cycles are all over the place, sometimes 2
months, sometimes 1, I just can't judge them at all. I never know when to
expect it, till it's here (I miss BCP's for that)

So, assuming that the 15th was BD day (and it was) how long should I wait
to expect the answer to be true. I've already take a FRER test on day 13
after BD and it was negative, I want to use the other one on a day I can
be sure to get a true answer. I don't want to risk a false negative
because I tested too early, and then be thinking I'm not pregnant, when I
really am.

For the record, I have no idea how long into my cycle the 15th was either,
it might have been day 14, might have been day 21, I really don't know,
I'm thinking longer since I don't remember my period being recent, but
given my erratic cycles, I can't count on predictable ovulation anyway.


*******
The 3 sentences that will get you through life.
#1, cover for me
#2, oh, good idea boss.
#3, It was like that when I got here
-Homer Simpson

So, assuming that the 15th was BD day (and it was) how long should I wait
to expect the answer to be true. I've already take a FRER test on day 13
after BD and it was negative, I want to use the other one on a day I can
be sure to get a true answer. I don't want to risk a false negative
because I tested too early, and then be thinking I'm not pregnant, when I
really am.

by FR you mean first response? I have some vague recollection that that
despite the name, it's one of the less sensitive ones. I'd wait a week,
which would be day 20, presuming you didn't BD any time after that one time
and it shows up negative then it would be very very unlikely you'd be
pregnant, but if you BDed other times an ovulation occured a different time
you still wouldn't know for sure.

FWIW, last time, I tested at 2 days late and 5 days late, both were
negative, found out I was pregnant about 3 weeks later, by my calculations
the 2nd one of those should have showed up positive.

Anne

On May 1, 2:20 am, "Anne Rogers" wrote:
So, assuming that the 15th was BD day (and it was) how long should I wait
to expect the answer to be true. I've already take a FRER test on day 13
after BD and it was negative, I want to use the other one on a day I can
be sure to get a true answer. I don't want to risk a false negative
because I tested too early, and then be thinking I'm not pregnant, when I
really am.

by FR you mean first response? I have some vague recollection that that
despite the name, it's one of the less sensitive ones. I'd wait a week,
which would be day 20, presuming you didn't BD any time after that one time
and it shows up negative then it would be very very unlikely you'd be
pregnant, but if you BDed other times an ovulation occured a different time
you still wouldn't know for sure.

FWIW, last time, I tested at 2 days late and 5 days late, both were
negative, found out I was pregnant about 3 weeks later, by my calculations
the 2nd one of those should have showed up positive.

Anne

The FR is first response. The 15th is the only day that could result
in pregnancy, if I were to have ovulated around that time. CM on the
16-20 days was the egg white type of CM, so I was thinking that maybe
I had ovulated, and could expect my period on the weekend past if I
was not pregnant, but obviously, still no period or I wouldn't be
asking. I guess I'll wait a few more days and test again, as hard as
it is to wait.

Stormlady wrote:

So, assuming that the 15th was BD day (and it was) how long should I wait to
expect the answer to be true. I've already take a FRER test on day 13 after
BD and it was negative, I want to use the other one on a day I can be sure
to get a true answer. I don't want to risk a false negative because I
tested too early, and then be thinking I'm not pregnant, when I really am.

There isn't an easy answer here. In general, you should
be able to get a response within a few weeks of conception.
However, while false positives are uncommon with pregnancy tests,
false negatives aren't particularly uncommon. Even if you wait
another week or two, there wouldn't be an absolute guarantee
that you wouldn't get a false negative. Some women don't get
a positive until weeks after that. Still, if you wait another
week or two you'd have better odds of an accurate answer.

Best wishes,
Ericka

"stormlady" wrote in message
oups.com...
On May 1, 2:20 am, "Anne Rogers" wrote:
So, assuming that the 15th was BD day (and it was) how long should I
wait
to expect the answer to be true. I've already take a FRER test on day
13
after BD and it was negative, I want to use the other one on a day I
can
be sure to get a true answer. I don't want to risk a false negative
because I tested too early, and then be thinking I'm not pregnant, when
I
really am.

by FR you mean first response? I have some vague recollection that that
despite the name, it's one of the less sensitive ones. I'd wait a week,
which would be day 20, presuming you didn't BD any time after that one
time
and it shows up negative then it would be very very unlikely you'd be
pregnant, but if you BDed other times an ovulation occured a different
time
you still wouldn't know for sure.

FWIW, last time, I tested at 2 days late and 5 days late, both were
negative, found out I was pregnant about 3 weeks later, by my
calculations
the 2nd one of those should have showed up positive.

Anne

The FR is first response. The 15th is the only day that could result
in pregnancy, if I were to have ovulated around that time. CM on the
16-20 days was the egg white type of CM, so I was thinking that maybe
I had ovulated, and could expect my period on the weekend past if I
was not pregnant, but obviously, still no period or I wouldn't be
asking. I guess I'll wait a few more days and test again, as hard as
it is to wait.


As I said before, your period will come about two weeks after you've
ovulated. So you don't coutn when to test based on when you had sex, but
rather when you think ovulation occured. It's possible that the sex you had
on the 15th could have fertilized an egg that popped on the 20th, but if it
did, the conception would have occured on the 20th, so counting begins from
there, regardless of whether or not conception occured. That means that
your period wouldn't have been due last weekend, which was two weeks after
your bd'ing on the 15th, but two weeks after the last day of CM, the 20th,
which would be THIS coming weekend.

So, according to your information, you had sex on April 15th, and then
experienced 4 days of eggwhite cervical mucas from April 16th - 20th. If
you did in fact ovulate on April 20th, you would expect your period to show
up on or around May 4th -- this Friday. Because your cycles are irratic and
you are not 100% sure, I'd wait until Sunday to test again. If you are in
fact pregnant, this would be about 16 days past conception, which should
mean a strong and reliable positive result. If you aren't pregnant, your
period will likely come on Friday or Saturday, thus saving you from having
to test. I inevitably tested and got a negative the day my period was due,
and it would come later that day or the next. Always made me wish I'd had
enough patience to wait until my period was actually LATE, instead of
testing the day it was due. Getting your period is a pretty obvious
negative pregnancy test result, you know? Why pay $ for something that
nature provides, free of charge... : )
--

Jamie
Earth Angels:
Taylor Marlys -- 01/03/03
Addison Grace -- 09/30/04

Check out the family! -- www.MyFamily.com, User ID: Clarkguest1, Password:
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Become a member for free - go to Add Member to set up your own User ID and
Password

On May 1, 6:50 am, stormlady wrote:

The FR is first response. The 15th is the only day that could result
in pregnancy, if I were to have ovulated around that time. CM on the
16-20 days was the egg white type of CM, so I was thinking that maybe
I had ovulated, and could expect my period on the weekend past if I
was not pregnant, but obviously, still no period or I wouldn't be
asking. I guess I'll wait a few more days and test again, as hard as
it is to wait.

I always had accurate results with First Response Early Response.

I just wanted to say too that egg white CM shows up before ovulation
-- it's a sign of fertility (you likely already know this). It's
possible for sperm to survive up to 5 days but if you ovulated towards
the end of the egg white CM it's unlikely though not impossible that
an egg fertlized from sex on the 15th. If your dates are right you
could conceiveably test today -- I've had positives as early as 10DPO
with the FRER. The other one you took could have been negative because
if you ovulated at the end of the egg white stuff you would have only
been like 8 or 9 days post-ovulation when you tested.

Elle

The FR is first response. The 15th is the only day that could result
in pregnancy, if I were to have ovulated around that time. CM on the
16-20 days was the egg white type of CM, so I was thinking that maybe
I had ovulated, and could expect my period on the weekend past if I
was not pregnant, but obviously, still no period or I wouldn't be
asking. I guess I'll wait a few more days and test again, as hard as
it is to wait.

nothings guaranteed, if you've been BDing, cervical mucous could be mixed
with sperm and not show the correct signs. If you're having unprotected sex
and you've not had your period, there is always a possibility you are
pregnant.

Anne