HCG Levels During Pregnancy

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~*~ Also, note that non pregnant females’ beta HCG level is <5 mIU/ml and postmenopausal females beta HCG level is <9.5 mIU/ml. ~*~

Progesterone Levels during pregnancy

HCG is human chorionic gonadotrophin. The most common blood test used to detect a pregnancy in the very early weeks, or to determine if a pregnancy is likely to continue or miscarry is a quantative (meaning #) Beta HCG. The earliest time a blood HCG test will detect a pregnancy is approximately 7 or 8 days after conception. However, this is not true for all women. Most women will show a positive blood HCG level by about 11 to 12 days after conception. Women who have HCG injections for fertility treatments can have HCG in their system for 2 to 3 weeks after the injection. This means they may obtain an early positive pregnancy test, yet not be pregnant.

The HCG hormone starts to be released into the woman's blood stream soon after the embryo implants into the lining of the uterus. This is knows as implantation and it occurs approximately 8 to 12 days after conception, but there is a variance so that it could happen sooner or later. The HCG blood level will initially start off very low but then rapidly increase doubling approximately every 48 hours, so that within a few days to a week or so, the HCG level becomes high enough to be detected in the woman's urine. Once this level is achieved, a urine pregnancy test will show as being positive.

A blood HCG level of 5 mIU/L may only indicate that a pregnancy is possible. But it may also indicate that a pregnancy has recently existed. If the blood test is repeated in 2 to 3 days and the beta HCG has approximately doubled, then this confirms that the pregnancy is continuing. A beta HCG of at least 25 mIU/L is definitely regarded as being a positive pregnancy blood test. If the pregnancy is less than 12 weeks and the levels start to lower, this is fairly indicative that the pregnancy will, or is in the process of miscarrying. HCG levels that are higher than expected may indicate a multiple pregnancy or the woman being more advanced in her pregnancy than calculated, or a molar pregnancy.

Normal HCG blood levels vary widely between different women and in different pregnancies for the same woman. Be very careful when trying to interpret the numbers. During the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, the level itself is NOT as important in how much it is rising every few days. Some normal pregnancies will have quite low HCG levels and still progress, ending in the birth of a healthy baby. The best way to confirm if a pregnancy is progressing is to repeat the blood test in 2 to 3 days time, and perhaps again 2 to 3 days after that. This is aimed at seeing if the HCG level is rising adequately.

Also, you should be aware that there is another common method that physicians and clinics use to confirm pregnancy. That is qualitative HCG. Which means it is not an exact # but, rather it tells yes or no. Such as a home pregnancies test that they dip into a sample of your urine. This will simply tell them the YES or NO. 

REMINDER: Be aware that even when a pregnancy is miscarrying the levels can slightly increase for a while, but not at the rate expected if the pregnancy was progressing normally.

Additional Hormone Level tested

Progesterone is a hormone that helps to build the lining of the woman's uterus for the fertilized egg to implant into. Pregnant women have about 10 times more progesterone in their blood during pregnancy than that of a non-pregnant woman. Progesterone levels slowly increase as the pregnancy progresses.

Low levels are known to be a physical sign of miscarriage during the first 12 weeks. It used to be thought that a lack of progesterone may be a cause of miscarriage. However, it is now believed that low progesterone levels are simply the body's normal response to the inevitable loss of a pregnancy.

Some caregivers will also perform progesterone blood tests, along with the HCG blood tests. However, the HCG tests are usually adequate on their own. It is possible to measure progesterone levels in a woman's urine, but she must collect all her urine over a 24 hour period to do this. Abnormally high levels of progesterone may indicate you are having twins or more, or it may be a sign of a molar pregnancy.

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