I will always remember the day I took my very first at-home pregnancy test. It was early February, 1997, my typically right-on-time period was about three days late, and the NBA All- Stars game was on television.
During halftime, I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. I went into the bathroom, took the test, and then called my husband in so we could watch what happened to the test stick together. It was supposed to take about three minutes to show a result. Mine started changing almost immediately and within seconds the magical two bars appeared and I was officially pregnant!
After joking with my husband that we’d have to name the baby Reggie Miller, I made a mental note to call my OB/GYN the following day to start my appointments for pre-natal care, which I knew was vital for the health of my unborn baby.
On Wednesday, January 27, the First Response company made an announcement that will help women start this invaluable pre-natal care even earlier. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved the new Early Result Pregnancy Test that will help women find out up to six days before the day of a woman’s missed period if she is expecting. The Early Result Pregnancy Test will allow women to find out if they are pregnant one day earlier than any other test currently on the market.
According to the reports I’ve read on this new product, the Early Result Pregnancy Test is able to detect the presence of a pregnancy hormone called human chorionic gonadtropin (hCG), in a woman’s urine. This hormone will typically appear in a pregnant woman 8-10 days after conception.
This just blows me away. I thought I found out early, knowing I was pregnant just a few days after my missed period. If the Early Result Pregnancy Test was available in 1997, I could have found out nine whole days earlier. That would have allowed me and my unborn son Nicholas the chance to have over one more week of prenatal care. In some cases, it might even prevent women who didn’t realize they were pregnant from taking medications or drinking alcohol or doing other things that could potentially harm their growing baby.
“A pregnancy test with results this early sets the stage for a healthy baby and a healthy mother. This latest advancement means pregnant women can initiate a healthier lifestyle even sooner in the critical first stages of a baby’s development,” said Mary Jane Minkin, MD, board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist in a private practice in New Haven, Connecticut, and a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine. “Women who want results quickly will undoubtedly have less anxiety when taking this at-home test.”
Boy, isn’t that the truth! Although it’s been almost 13 years since that unforgettable NBA All-Stars game, I will always remember how nerve-wracking it was to try to piddle on a stick and then see what the results would be. Trying to get pregnant and hoping each month that I would be was both exciting and difficult, and finding out even earlier would have been great. I suspect this new test will provide many women with the results that they are anxiously awaiting, and it will help both Mom and baby start the journey to week 40 and childbirth by receiving pre-natal care sooner rather than later.