Orchid offers advanced genetic testing for couples who want their child to have the best shot of a healthy life. As part of our “Pregnancy and Fertility” series, we distill down your fertility treatment options and help you navigate the complex process.
How Do Pregnancy Tests Work?
As soon as a woman conceives, her body begins to undergo drastic changes. Although, she won’t be able to feel them happening — at least, not at first.
One of the very first signs of pregnancy is your body’s production of the pregnancy hormone human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG). The amount of hCG that your body begins producing will increase rapidly, doubling every two days as your pregnancy progresses.
If you’re doing fertility treatments like IVF, the recommendation is to do a beta hCG quantitative blood test ordered by your fertility doctor.
What about at-home urine pregnancy tests? Will it be accurate after IVF?At-home pregnancy tests work by detecting the hCG in your urine. It involves placing the absorbent tip in the urine stream for 5-10 seconds, or depending on the test used, collecting urine into a clean, dry container and dipping the absorbent tip for 5-20 seconds. After 1-3 minutes the at-time will give you a result that’s positive or negative.
Urine pregnancy tests are not recommended for confirming pregnancy after embryo transfer since they’re not accurate in the earliest stages of pregnancy. False positive or negative results are common with urine-based tests early in pregnancy, which causes unnecessary confusion for fertility patients.
How Early Can I Take a Pregnancy Test After IVF?
If you did a fresh embryo transfer:
The beta hCG quantitative blood test is ordered 14 days after your egg retrieval. It typically takes 48-72 hours after the embryo transfer for the embryo to implant.
If you did a frozen embryo transfer:
The beta hCG quantitative blood test is ordered 9-13 days after your embryo transfer, depending on the developmental stage of the embryo when it was transferred. For blastocysts (day 5-6 embryos), it’s recommended to take the pregnancy test 9 days after embryo transfer.
After that initial pregnancy, comes a series of if/then procedures:
- If the initial pregnancy test is positive, the test is repeated two days later.
- If the hcG levels have doubled and are rising appropriately, then then the first OB ultrasound will follow about two weeks later. This is when your doctor can confirm an intrauterine pregnancy, check the size, and confirm a fetal heartbeat.
- If your BhCG levels are not adequately rising, your fertility doctor will continue to administer blood tests to determine whether the pregnancy is viable and rule out the possibility of an ectopic pregnancy.
- If the pregnancy test is negative, you will be directed to stop all medications, and your doctor can discuss considering a new IVF cycle to try again.
When do I “graduate” from IVF treatment and start seeing my OB/GYN?
Your fertility doctor will perform two ultrasounds: one at around 6 weeks and 3 days of pregnancy, and another at 8 weeks and 3 days.
After that second OB ultrasound, your OB/GYN will begin overseeing your continued medical care throughout your pregnancy.
What to Expect After an Embryo Transfer
During the two weeks after your embryo transfer and leading up to your scheduled test appointment, you can expect to feel similar symptoms of menstruation. Those symptoms would include heaviness or fullness in your pelvis which may be secondary to the ovaries and/or enlarging of uterus, fatigue, bloating, mood changes, appetite changes, breast tenderness, cramps, light spotting, muscle aches, and nausea.
The waiting game of not knowing if you are pregnant after the embryo transfer, is often very difficult. However, you can plan accordingly for that “two weeks wait” to be less anxiety-ridden by planning activities that you enjoy and spending time with your close loved ones. Get enough sleep and no alcohol, no smoking, no recreational drugs, limit caffeine to one cup daily, and avoid heavy lifting and strenuous exercise.
Fertility treatment and reproductive medicine have come a long way since IVF was first introduced over 40 years ago. If you are planning on starting or growing your family, check out our expert guides on all things genetics and fertility. Today, advanced genetic screening is now available to couples who want their child to have the best shot of a healthy life. Explore how Orchid helps you conceive with confidence.
After undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment and having an embryo transfer, the two-week wait for that (hopefully) big fat positive pregnancy test can feel agonizingly long. You’ve just spent a month taking meds to prepare your body for transfer, spent thousands of dollars on treatments, attended dozens of appointments, and transferred a precious embryo that you worked so hard to create. The stakes feel incredibly high; we know because we’ve been there.
Infertility–and especially IVF–can feel like an endless waiting game, but you’ve made it this far, and you just need to be patient for a little bit longer. So how soon can you actually take an at-home pregnancy test after IVF?
How Early Can You Test After an Embryo Transfer?
We’ll just cut to the chase: the most accurate time to take a pregnancy test after IVF is 7 days after a day-5 embryo transfer. Why? After a day-5 embryo transfer, it takes a few days for the embryo to safely implant into the endometrial lining of your uterus. Once the embryo has implanted, your body will begin producing hCG, otherwise known as “the pregnancy hormone.” This is the hormone that at-home pregnancy tests detect in your urine.
Depending on when implantation occurs, some early at-home pregnancy tests might be able to detect pregnancy as early as 5 days post-transfer. To do so, you’ll want to use a high-sensitivity pregnancy test, which detects hCG at a threshold of 25 mIU/mL or less.
Usually, your fertility clinic will schedule an hCG beta blood test for 8 or 9 days post-embryo-transfer, which studies have shown yields very predictive results for successful pregnancies of both fresh and frozen embryo transfers. This test will give you the most accurate results, as it measures the specific level of hCG in the blood.
The Pros and Cons of Testing Early
Your fertility specialist might ask you not to take an at-home pregnancy test and to wait until you go in for the blood test, but, let’s face it, waiting is hard! And you’ve certainly done plenty of it so far. So, let’s look at some of the pros and cons of at-home testing.
The obvious pro: you might get your results sooner!
The cons list is a little longer, but you can weigh the options yourself and find peace in at least having all of the information. The biggest con is that an at-home test after an IVF transfer can provide false results, either negative or positive.
Some of your fertility medications–for example, your trigger shot–might contain hCG, which can yield a false positive in an at-home test following a fresh embryo transfer. Because this is the hormone at-home pregnancy tests look for in your urine, it’s possible to get a false positive, especially if the test is performed too early. Conversely, your hCG levels may have gone down following egg retrieval, and you might take the test before your body naturally produces enough hCG to be detected in early pregnancy, resulting in a false negative.
Another possible con is simply user error. In other words, you may take the test incorrectly and get an invalid result. Lastly, and possibly the most heartbreaking scenario, is that you get a positive at-home pregnancy test and then suffer from a chemical pregnancy or an early miscarriage.
Even if you receive a negative test result at home, do not stop taking your prescribed IVF medications, and be sure to continue following your doctor’s prescribed protocol. The test may have produced an invalid negative result, which can only be confirmed with an in-clinic hCG beta blood test.
What is the Best Pregnancy Test for Early Detection?
For a self-proclaimed pee-on-a-stick addict, the best type of early detection at-home pregnancy test is one that has high sensitivity and can detect hCG at a threshold of 25 mIU/mL or less. The First Response Early Result Pregnancy Test detects hCG at 25 mIU/mL, and Natalist’s Pregnancy Test detects hCG as low as 10 mIU/mL.
If you’re going to test at home, we recommend taking a test each day starting 5 days after your transfer. As your hCG levels continue to rise, the positive result should get darker each day, and the test results will become more reliable as you get closer to your beta hCG blood test.
Do What’s Best for You
The two-week wait is its own kind of mind game. It requires the specific type of strength and hope that so much of the fertility journey asks of you. And sometimes, the waiting can be more unbearable than the risk of a false test result. So if you need something tangible to hold onto while you wait for your beta hCG blood test, take an early detection at-home pregnancy test, but take the results with a grain of salt. If testing early is going to help prepare yourself for the news–good or bad–then try to be at peace with that decision. Sending all of the big fat positive vibes your way this cycle!
Brighid Flynn is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia where she lives with her husband and puppy. She is just beginning her journey toward motherhood.