When To Take A Pregnancy Test:
How early can you start testing?

Do you know when to take a pregnancy test? How early is too early?
It can be a very nerve wracking time waiting to take a test to see if you are pregnant.

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If you've been trying to have a baby, and especially if you've been trying for a while, you probably already have heard of the term 'two week wait' - that's the time from ovulation through to your next period, and usually when you are waiting to find out if you are pregnant.

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Here's a short video about the right time to take a pregnancy test, and how:

For those who have been trying for a while now, they know that usually you need to wait until your next period before you can really tell if you are pregnant.
Normally the hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) levels in your body is what the pregnancy test usually detects. hCG is your main pregnancy hormone and it increases as you get further along in your pregnancy, so naturally the sooner you test, the less of the hormone that will be present in your body.
Having said that, it does depend on the pregnancy test you are using though, as to how soon you can test and when you can detect the level of hCG in your blood. The more sensitive a test, the earlier it can detect if you are indeed pregnant, or not.

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As a general rule, even the most sensitive pregnancy tests can only detect up to 4 days before when your period is normally due, or from 7 days past ovulation onwards.

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You must remember that even if you do get pregnant, the embryo won't implant into the side of your uterus until between 4 and 7 days past the day of ovulation.

When To Take A Pregnancy Test:
Testing Too Early

Sometimes the hCG won't show in your urine until 12 days after ovulation, so you can't always go by the book and expect a result 7 days after ovulation. If you ovulated later than you thought, it can also trick you up. A lot of women have tested even 11 days after when they thought they ovulated, got a negative result and thought they weren't pregnant, when just 2 days later after still not getting their period and testing again, they find they are pregnant according to the test.

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You may not know or realize this, but a lot of pregnancies end in miscarriage, and most of the time it happens before you even know you are pregnant.

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That's the downside of using an ultra-sensitive style test. If everything isn't right, normally you will get your period without even knowing you had miscarried, but if you see a faint line on your test in very early days, you may be up for disappointment if you get your periods a few days after.
That's why, it might be even better, mentally, to wait out the painful '2 week wait' to have a stronger indication and slightly better odds.
So... if you are still wondering when to take a pregnancy test, well really, the choice is yours! You can test between 9 and 11 days after ovulation if you have a sensitive pregnancy test that indicates you can test earlier, but if you don't want to be disappointed with a potential early miscarriage, it may be better to wait until the day after your period is normally due, as a greater percent of miscarriages happen before than, and without testing would normally go unnoticed and undetected.