How Early Can A Pregnancy Be Detected In Ivf? The Waiting Game

How early can you test for pregnancy after an IVF treatment? How long should you wait to see the accurate result after the embryo transfer? When can you finally hear “congratulations” on your pregnancy? Here is the answer to your every query. Read on to find out more about this topic.

Women who have undergone an IVF treatment cannot be blamed for being excited to see the results. It is hard not to get excited as finally one of the long-seen dreams is going to be fulfilled. Still, you need patience throughout the entire process as IVF is not a 1 day procedure that will give you the desired results quickly.

The treatment plan itself takes time to complete. In the beginning stage, you are given ovulation induction medicines for a specific period and then only the doctors will proceed with the surgery. After the retrieval egg, you are again supposed to wait at least 3-5 days in order for the embryo to mature.

After the maturation, you will be asked to visit your doctor who will place the chosen embryo into your uterus. These procedures are not easy as it sounds and therefore it requires much time. After the placing of the embryo, they will again ask you to wait for another 10-15 days to see whether there will be any fruitful result or not. 

In this article, we are going to discuss the time period that is required for IVF pregnancy to be detected. 

How Soon After Ivf Can You Take A Pregnancy Test?

It is common and understandable when women undergoing IVF treatment ask “How quickly can I see the results?” immediately after the embryo transfer. It is the reflection of the excitement that you have been carrying ever since you visited your fertility center for the first time.

You must have been emotionally attached to conception. However, implantation, the process in which the embryo is attached to the uterine wall, takes some time which may differ from person to person. Usually, a pregnancy test is advised after at least 7 days of embryo transfer. Yet, it is better if you can wait for another week to see the accurate results. 

However, make sure not to take a pregnancy test at home as pregnancy caused by IVF needs to be tested in a different method, which only your doctor can do. So, need not waste your money on those silly pregnancy kits that are easily available at any drugstore. 

The process of getting pregnant via IVF is quite exciting, so we do understand your curiosity about taking tests. But, the pregnancy tests that you do at home are likely to be false and inaccurate. So, why not wait a couple of weeks rather than getting fooled by home pregnancy tests? 

How Accurate Are Home Pregnancy Tests? 

Home pregnancy tests are advised to detect naturally conceived pregnancies and not for an IVF pregnancy. But, what could be the reason for it? 

Often, pregnancy tests show either false positives or false negatives. Either way, it will mislead you. Especially after an IVF. Because, throughout the treatment, you are induced with hormone medications that will boost the human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) levels.

These hormones are normally only released when you are pregnant and therefore, the drug store pregnancy tests are designed in such a way that it detects the presence of hCG in your urine. But, when you are taking an IVF treatment, your body will be injected with hCG, which will increase the amount of hCG in your urine as well.

So, when you take a home pregnancy test, it might show false positives. On the other hand, an early test done at home might also get you a false negative if the injected hCG levels are not detectable in the urine. 

Hence, it is better to avoid such situations by waiting for at least 10 days after the embryo transfer. Waiting alone will not suffice as you should also abstain from taking a home test as it is too unreliable in detecting IVF pregnancies. This is the reason why an in-clinic pregnancy test is always recommended by doctors. 

How Are IVF Pregnancies Tested? 

IVF is an infertility treatment that requires your time, energy, and money. So, don’t you think you deserve to get accurate test results when you are doing everything in your control to conceive? 

At the fertility institute, you are meant to undergo several pregnancy tests, one after the other. To begin with, there will be an hCG test roughly after 7 days of embryo transfer. It is called a beta pregnancy test. Unlike the name, the test is simple where your blood is collected to check the levels of hCG in it.

Following that, you will be again asked to repeat a blood test after a couple more days, approximately 2-7 days. A second test is carried out to see whether the hCG levels have increased tremendously or not.

When you are pregnant, your hCG levels will dramatically increase during the second week of pregnancy. But, these tests do not confirm the conception until you get positive results on the ultrasound. It is the third step in the IVF pregnancy tests. 

Once you are done and tested positive for all three tests, you can finally say that you are pregnant. 

Conclusion 

If you are undergoing an IVF treatment, then it is likely that you are looking for ways by which you can assure yourself about being pregnant. Most women often look at their bodies to find any possible symptoms that will indicate a pregnancy.

But, it is not an accurate way to say whether or not you are pregnant. While you are already doing a lot to conceive, why not wait until your doctor makes a pregnancy testing schedule for you, which approximately takes 7 days from the day of embryo transfer? This is the only reliable way to receive accurate test results. So, stop wasting your money and energy on drugstore pregnancy testers and invest them in your health.