I feel like I post on here every month with the same silly questions! But here it goes.
Tomorrow will be 4 days until my expected period. This is totally just an estimate, because some times it is much shorter or a bit longer. Anyhow, I am trying to decide if it is too early to test. This month has been very odd. Usually my pms symptoms are the same every moth and start almost two weeks before my period! Slight cramping, some moodiness, which then turns into severe cramping and moodiness, upset stomach, and just run down sick feeling about a day before it starts!
This month… So different. For the last 3 days I have been EXTREMELY moody. I mean crying for an hour, wanting to punch my husband, and then laughing hysterically sort of emotions! Which has never happened to that extreme! No cramping at all. Very abnormal. [name]Even[/name] more exhausted than usual. So basically a few of my normal symptoms have been multiplied by a million, but my tell take period symptoms are non existent! Given that i [name]DO[/name] have these odd symptoms… [name]Do[/name] you think a test should show up positive tomorrow? Or should I wait it out? I am so bad at waiting but so disappointed at a negative test! What do you think? Thanks!
If you test tomorrow, it will almost certainly be negative. This will be due to one of two things:
you are not pregnant, in which case you will say “damn, I wasted a test!”
you have conceived but do not yet have adequate levels of the pregnancy hormone, B-HCG, to detect the pregnancy, in which case you will say “damn, I wasted a test!”
In general, for almost all women, the earliest possible day on which you can get a positive result is the day before your expected period.
Here is the timeline breakdown:
Period [name]Day[/name] - 14: you ovulate. The egg bursts out of its little follicle and floats free in the pelvis
Period [name]Day[/name] - 13: the egg is swept into the fallopian tube. Either today or tomorrow, it meets waiting sperm.
Period [name]Day[/name] -12: conception occurs, and the egg begins rolling down the long, windy fallopian tube to the uterus.
Period [name]Day[/name] -5, 4 or 3 [sometimes 2 or 1]: the fertilized egg, which has begun dividing into multiple cells including the half that becomes the baby and the half that becomes the placenta, reaches the uterus
Period [name]Day[/name] -4, 3 or 2: the fertilized egg implants. As soon as implantation occurs, vascular signals are sent out that promote the growth of blood vessels towards the new half that will be placenta. The placenta, as soon as it tastes blood, starts secreting B-HCG.
Period [name]Day[/name] -2: B-HCG doubles
Period [name]Day[/name]: B-HCG doubles again. At this point enough has been secreted into your blood (5 is the magic level) to be concentrated enough to be excreted in your urine, to be detected in a HPT.
Obviously some women have shorter fallopian tube transit times than others, and some women have longer luteal phases to their periods than others, but that’s the breakdown.
It is impossible to have a genuine pregnancy symptom until right around your missed period. Not improbable, not 99% impossible, impossible. I know you want a baby very badly but hopefully understanding the facts will help you manage your nerves!
I vote that you go stock up on $1 pregnancy tests, if you live near a Dollar Store, or go to WalMart and get 5 for about $13 like I did, and then just take one. If it’s going to ease your nerves, why not? Of course seeing a negative is disappointing, so you have to weight that. Would you rather risk the disappointment or do you want to know? But - of course, as [name]Blade[/name] said above - you are still early so even if you get a negative tomorrow, you can still re-test in a few more days if your period doesn’t show up. Your mental health is more important than “wasting” tests in my opinion! Whenever I had the urge to take one, I did. And I got my positive 3 full days before my period was actually due.
If/when you do take a pregnancy test, just be sure to do it during your first trip to the bathroom of the day. If you do it later, or guzzle a bunch of fluids before-hand, that can alter the results. Good luck!
ETA: I also meant to say that I, too, felt very different the month I got my positive. I was super up and down and emotional, laughing and crying, extra forgetful and spacey and a total klutz. Hubby took me to a fancy restaurant for our anniversary and I knocked over a water pitcher - and then a diet coke. The waiters were not pleased! I also felt a few weird twinges in my uterus-area. I just felt “off”. So my hopes were up - and it turned out to be right, as of today I’m 12 weeks!
Thanks for the facts I completely understand the process. My concern is that my period is not always on a 28 day cycle which I calculate things by. It is an average. I recently had 24 day cycle. In that case I technically could have missed my period already! So i guess it is all just a guessing game. I supposed ill just wait until the 28 days are up before testing anyways!
My advice will be what you don’t want to hear - wait. From my experiences last month (I tested early and got negatives), I’m definitely going to wait until at least the day my period is due next month. This month I told myself not to be too disheartened if it’s negative because it might be a false negative. But I couldn’t help but feel very disappointed each time. So, next month, I’m saving myself the heartache and waiting! Waiting is hard, but it’s not as hard as getting multiple negative test results.
I was TTC for about 8 months before the cycle that I got pregnant. I always tested early because I was too impatient. Usually I tested 2-3 days before my period was due (my cycles fluctuated bw 28-31 days so I considered day 30 the “due date” but I always thought oh day 27-could be missed period already and talked myself into it). For me, I am a person who always bought the First Response [name]Early[/name] Results (expensive and very sensitive) tests because I knew I would likely be testing early and I wanted an accurate result.
When I was pregnant with [name]Ramona[/name] I got pregnant my very first cycle after a miscarriage. I knew I had ovulated, and I tested positive at 9 days post ovulation (day 23 of my 28 day cycle). I happened to have a doctors appointment the same day and the FRER was more sensitive than the one my doctor had which did not show up positive on the same day (though it was not my first morning urine either).
That experience basically ruined my ability to wait because I kept expecting to get pregnant immediately like I had the first time, and I knew that there was a chance that the only thing standing between me and that little pink line was waiting for my missed period, and I just didn’t have the self control. I never took a second test (because I knew the FRER were accurate) unless my period was late, which only happened once.
The moral of the story is that I wasted about 100 bucks on pregnancy tests during those 8 months. But I never had a false negative. The month I was pregnant with little bean #2 I found out 9 days after I ovulated, just like I did with [name]Ramona[/name]. Which was really nice!
So from my own experience I say if you are going to test early do it with a test that is pretty sensitive or don’t bother. The cheaper they are the less sensitive (I think?-I don’t actually know if that is always the case).
Personally, I would wait until the day your period is due, or maybe the day before at the earliest. That’s the earliest I’ve ever gotten a BFP, even with a super-sensative early response test. Testing even 1 day earlier–BFN.
I think it really comes down to how testing will make you feel. I spent a lot of money on pregnancy tests, but the real cost, for me, was emotional. Days of BFNs only to get my period at the end would about lay me out. If you’re different, or if testing would make you feel relieved or proactive, do what’s best for you.
I’m not a big testaholic… I don’t get excited to test for some reason…so I usually wait for the day my period is due or even 1 day late to test. I have so many other things in my life that I get obsessive and crazy about that I have no room to put HPTs in that grouping… LOL…it’s so silly really because my personality and our desire for children really points directly to a typical “POAS-addict” - I’ve never taken a dollar store test in my life! I use FRER exclusively My last pregnancy, I got a positive at 12 DPO though and I made an exception to my testing rule because I had a feeling and it was one of the first months trying (and having a good chance of conceiving based on timing/charting) after a 2nd trimester loss…we were anxious to test.
So hold off a few more days if you can, but I think 12 DPO is a bare minimun and you could get a positive then.
