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Pregnancy Testing Too Early
Premature Home Pregnancy Testing
By Carma Haley Shoemaker
The Sooner the Better?
According to Dr. Brasner, an overwhelming number of doctors think early pregnancy detection is not a good idea. "Many doctors don't like the idea of a woman taking a pregnancy test at all before she actually misses a period," says Dr. Brasner. "Nearly four out of five doctors – 79 percent – polled in a survey commissioned by 
Pfizer Consumer Healthcare at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) meeting prefer that women not use a home pregnancy test up to four days before their expected menstrual period. Clinical testing shows almost half of pregnant women – 48 percent – will get a false negative response four days before their period is due." "I had [an early detection pregnancy test] done at a doctor's office that showed up negative," says Karen Lovett of Jasper, Ala. "This was the first part of June, and looking back I was about 2 weeks pregnant at the time. They even did a blood test that showed up negative. My hormones weren't high enough to even register on the test. My daughter was born the following February."
In fact, 84 percent of OB/GYNs from the same survey stated there could be potential health risks associated with receiving false negative results on home pregnancy tests. Those risks include the following:
- Taking certain prescriptions. Many prescriptions should not be taken by women who are pregnant and/or breastfeeding.
- Drinking alcohol. Alcohol has been shown to cause fetal alcohol syndrome as well as other birth defects and disorders when consumed by pregnant women.
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