Is a Blood Pregnancy Test Worth the Time and Money?

Obie Editorial Team

There are two types of pregnancy test – blood and urine – that most women come in contact with when trying to conceive. The urine pregnancy test can be administered at home or in the doctor’s office (they are both generally the same test), but the blood pregnancy test is reserved for the lab. Both tests are looking for the same hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin, but they are testing for different things. Is the blood test worth the extra time and money?

Urine Vs. Blood – What Are They Testing For?
The urine pregnancy test, often referred to as the home pregnancy test, is looking for hCG. If hCG is present in urine, the test will read positive. There are slight variances in test results. For instance, when I used a home test when I first found out I was pregnant with my twins, the test returned an extremely dark line in a very short period of time, but that was likely because my hCG levels were far above normal.

This leads me to the blood hCG test. Blood tests are not just looking for hCG in general; they are testing for the total amount of hCG. Again, in my case, the test came back positive and the hCG level was twice that of what the doctor expected. I was pregnant with twins and thus the elevated hCG levels.

Blood Testing – Worth the Money?
This question is one couples have to answer. In my case, I was given a blood test once before because I’d been trying to conceive for months to no avail. The test was negative the first time. About a month later, I received the second blood test and it showed the twin pregnancy. If I had NOT had the second test I would not have known I was having twins until the ultrasound.

You will have to decide if blood pregnancy testing is worth the money. In my case, yes the cost was worth it, but that is not the case for all women.