A decade back a suspected woman will enter the gynec doc’s chamber, to get a clinching diagnosis for her status whether she is pregnant or not. In years to come thanks to internet revolution and availability of over the counter preg test kits doctor is nearly forgotten!
There are pluses and minuses of new era, where diagnosing a pregnancy is easy but not perfect one hundred percent. Take an example of woman whose menstrual cycle is long, her probable time of ovulation (release of female egg) is little late, and so the test is negative.
If you wait for few more days, the same woman will have a positive test. So timing is very important. In a regularly menstruating woman, a good quality test will be positive by 32 days post last menstrual date. If your test is negative, it does not rule out pregnancy, wait till your period ensues or repeat test after 72 hours.
Whenever there is a confusion, best course of action is a visit to a gynec doctor. He/She has years of expertise to clinically judge and if necessary, sonographically confirming your status-pregnant or non-pregnant.
The biggest to my mind is the young girls having sexual relationship without precaution, missing her date. She us very anxious, she is worried she will do everything to get an early diagnosis and if need arise, and if she is pregnant to get rid of.
She may buy a cheap preg test kit, may not get correct report and then end up in a messy affair. Take an example of a girl, who has missed period and her preg. test is negative. She will be happy for few days, but once she doesn’t get her period, she is once again worried. Most of the time, she is clueless. Three things happen after taking her boy friend’s opinion.
1) Repeat her test with same quality test kit or a better one 2) Takes some medicines to get her period 3) Takes opinion of a learned gynecologist the best course of action is to visit a gynec doctor but she do not do that. she repeats the test, which is once again negative. She immediately takes some pills (often advertised in TV Channels or newspaper.) which does not work (because she is not pregnant.) and then takes experienced friends opinion, and takes another set of medicines, which alas, does not work!
The great gamble of getting period is not over. Supposedly she takes a set of prostaglandin tablets, when she is not pregnant. It will not work, but may cause a life Threatening situation if she is asthmatic. Similarly if she take ocpills, when the test is negative, but she is actually pregnant, her preg is in fallopian tube, yet to descend down in uterus. Another catastrophy may occur, she may end up in an ectopic pregnancy with grievous complication.
So what is the lesson to be learnt? A nausea, a vomiting, an abdominal cramp along with missed period does not mean there is pregnancy. Let your diagnosis be made by gynec doctor and let there be systemic evaluation. An early preg test or an early sonography may give a wrong interpretation.
And a word of caution: the most advertised drugs for termination of pregnancy are having serious complications: They May Kill you or may kill your reproductive ability let your experienced doctor take a decision, not an advertisement in newspaper, TV Channel or internet site!