Miscarriage Pregnancy Test

Miscarriage is defined as the spontaneous termination of pregnancy at a stage where the fetus is not capable of surviving inside the mother's womb. It generally occurs before 6 months of gestation. Miscarriage is considered to be the most common complication of pregnancy in its initial stages. Many-a-times, miscarriages go unnoticed. Pregnant women are often curious to gain some information on it. They often search for a miscarriage pregnancy test.

Can a pregnancy test tell you about miscarriage?
Soon after conception, the placenta is formed to form a connection between the mother's body and the zygote. The purpose of the placenta is to nourish the zygote that is undergoing different pregnancy developmental stages. The placenta produces a hormone called hCG or human chorionic gonadotropin. It is the hormone that is one of the representatives of pregnancy. A pregnancy test is based on the detection of the levels of hCG in your body. Its concentration should be above 25mlU/ml to declare the pregnancy test positive. The pregnancy test can be conducted either with urine or blood. A home pregnancy test kit usually uses urine as the sample for testing. Thus, the basis of both home and clinical pregnancy test is the level of hCG in your body.

Let's explain whether a pregnancy test can detect a miscarriage or not. As is crystal clear from the above paragraph, the work of a pregnancy test is to detect the presence of hCG in blood or urine. When hCG is present in more than a given quantity in the given sample, it declares the test as positive, otherwise negative. The job of the pregnancy test ends here. When you miscarry, hCG does not disappear from your body right away. In fact, the hCG level takes a certain period of time to come to nil. The time period depends upon how far you had gone in the stages of pregnancy. Thus, a pregnancy test will give you a positive result even when you have miscarried. Therefore, a miscarriage pregnancy test is not possible. However, a miscarriage is indicated when you were positive on a pregnancy test a few weeks ago but are negative on it now. This is a situation where you need a medical professional to solve your queries on pregnancy and miscarriage.

What are the symptoms of miscarriage?
It is the first trimester of pregnancy that is most likely to witness a miscarriage. To the maximum, it can occur before the end of 24 weeks of pregnancy, when the developing fetus is unable to survive outside uterus. There can be several factors that can lead to a miscarriage. These are - hormonal imbalance, immune system disorders, infections like listeriosis, malaria, etc. Following are some of noticeable symptoms of miscarriage.

• Bleeding that occurs from time to time
• Cramping in the vagina which is similar to labor huffs. It may or may not be accompanied with bleeding
• Cramping and pain in the pelvis and back
• Loss of pregnancy symptoms after a few days or weeks

If you are pregnant and notice the above given miscarriage symptoms, consult a medical professional as soon as possible. Usually a vaginal ultrasound is conducted to find out the viability of the fetus. The doctor may put you under treatment if the miscarriage is incomplete or missed. The treatment aims at removing the remains of pregnancy tissue. It may be done with medicines and surgery.