Preg Test while breastfeeding?

[SquirelNutkin]

At what point will a pregnancy (pee) test work when you are breastfeeding?
I am breastfeeding a toddler, so we have long breaks, but he bf a lot at night.
When do the test become accurate? Are there things I can do to make it more accurate (not during the night when he is bf, no coffee, lots of water, morning pee? Will any of these idea affect the test?)

And if I must get a blood test, where would one get a cheap one? I dont ahve insurance.

thanks all
b

[Sugar Magnolia]

:

I have had 1 neg and 2 very faint pos. I am currently nursing my 13 mo and have not had a period yet. No health insurance either, I am thinking of calling the county to see where I can go to get a test.

[LittleOne03]

Breastfeeding doesn't have anything to do with pregnancy tests. The tests pick up a hormone (HCG) that is produced during pregnancy, not breastfeeding. Breastfeeding suppresses ovulation for a time in most women, but you can absolutely still get pregnant and have an accurate test result (as I sit holding my daughter that was conceived when my 5 month old son was still nursing at least every 2 hours around the clock). The test should be accurate 2 weeks after ovulation (or when you think pregnancy may have occured).

[ComaWhite]

Breastfeeding doesn't have anything to do with pregnancy tests.

Yes it does.
The reason pg pee tests can pick up hgc in urine is because excess hcg produced by your body spills over into the urine. (Which is why some women never get a + on a pee test even though they are 100% pg, they just never make an excess) If you are lactating, the excess can also spill over into the breastmilk, which means it never gets a chance to build up a great enough concentration in your urine.


Also, if you take a test too late in the pregnancy, it may be negative too.

"hCG is produced by the placenta, it maintains the corpus luteum to encourage endometrial growth, suppresses maternal lymphocytes and peaks at 60-70 days of pregnancy."
and
"The amount of hCG produced and secreted by the trophoblast layer increases, until it reaches a peak at about 8 weeks of pregnancy (120 to 130 IU/ml). It then decreases in amount, reaching a low at about 16 weeks (20-30 IU/ml), and remaining there for the rest of the pregnancy. Because hCG levels are so low after 16 weeks, routine pregnancy tests performed after this time may be negative."

[SquirelNutkin]

I know breastfeeding affects (thanks for the explanation why) because in my last pregnancy evan though I wasnt bf that much, i never showed positive on a pee test.

Well, the last 3 days of constant and intense nausea has made the test for me~!!
Whew 3!

thanks all,
b : :

[ComaWhite]

A womans intuition is a better test than any you can buy
Wow 3! Congrats!

[pfamilygal]

Pregnancy tests are not affected by bf, as your body doesn't produce hcg during bf. I was nursing when I got pg with Abby and it showed up right away on an EPT.

[wasabi]

Like several others I have never heard that BFing affects a pg test at all. I'd actually be interested in seeing a link that supports the idea that Bfing does affect pg test results. I know for instance that the fairly long HPT inserts about what all can affect it don't tell you that if you're BFing it might not be accurate. Certainly some women take longer than others to get a positive result even though they're pregnant. I've known women (who were not nursing) who didn't get a positive as long as even 20 days after ovulation. In my case with my DD at 15dpo I only got the faintest second line with a test that was supposedly very sensitive even though a blood test done that same day was 142 which theoretically should give me a positive on just about any HPT. On the other hand while still nursing my DD 6-8/day this time around I got a very clear BFP at 14dpo. Certainly BFing might well delay ovulation so if you were not charting and aren't really sure when you actually ovulated you might think you didn't get a BFP until late while it might have been well within the norm but that's all.

[eclipse]

i don't know about the science of it, but i am tandem nursing my older two (youngest still nursing very frequently) and got a faint + at 14DPO and a strog positive at 16DPO

[wasabi]

Sorry I just was rereading the post with the stats a bit more and those numbers are very different from anything I've ever read as well. I've never heard that hcg peaks at 120-130 iu/ml at 8 weeks of pg. For one thing having had a beta of 142 at 4w1d my experience totally contradicts that. But there are also published charts of normal ranges of hcg during pg and while it certainly does peak it's in the tens of thousands at that point and though it does drop certainly it doesn't drop to nothing.

Just giving a couple of links with average levels of hcg in early pg which far exceed the number previously given.

http://www.advancedfertility.com/earlypre.htm

http://www.conceivingconcepts.com/le...icles/hcg.html

* At 14 DPO, the average HCG level is 48 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 17-119 mIU/ml.
* At 15 DPO, the average HCG level is 59 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 17-147 mIU/ml.
* At 16 DPO, the average HCG level is 95 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 33-223 mIU/ml.
* At 17 DPO, the average HCG level is 132 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 17-429 mIU/ml.
* At 18 DPO, the average HCG level is 292 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 70-758 mIU/ml.
* At 19 DPO, the average HCG level is 303 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 111-514 mIU/ml.
* At 20 DPO, the average HCG level is 522 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 135-1690 mIU/ml.
* At 21 DPO, the average HCG level is 1061 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 324-4130 mIU/ml.
* At 22 DPO, the average HCG level is 1287 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 185-3279 mIU/ml.
* At 23 DPO, the average HCG level is 2034 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 506-4660 mIU/ml.
* At 24 DPO, the average HCG level is 2637 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 540-10,000 mIU/ml.
.......
HCG levels peak at about eight to 10 weeks of pregnancy and then decline, remaining at lower levels for the rest of the pregnancy. Here is a sample listing of expected HCG levels based on time after conception:

* 0-1 week: 0-50 mIU/ml
* 1-2 weeks: 40-300 mIU/ml
* 3-4 weeks: 500-6,000 mIU/ml
* 1-2 months: 5,000-200,000 mIU/ml
* 2-3 months: 10,000-100,000 mIU/ml
* 2nd trimester: 3,000-50,000 mIU/ml
* 3rd trimester: 1,000-50,000 mIU/ml

I do remember another poster who was talking about a rebound effect with HPTs and betas but think that would actually be quite unusual.

And fwiw per kellymom http://www.kellymom.com/bf/normal/fertility.html

Many mothers wonder whether breastfeeding will affect the reliability of pregnancy tests. It does not -- pregnancy tests measure the amount of the hormone hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) in blood or urine, and hCG levels are not affected by breastfeeding. The developing placenta begins releasing hCG upon implantation; a pregnancy can generally be detected with a pregnancy test within 7-14 days after implantation.

[Queen of Cups]

Originally Posted by wasabi

Sorry I just was rereading the post with the stats a bit more and those numbers are very different from anything I've ever read as well. I've never heard that hcg peaks at 120-130 iu/ml at 8 weeks of pg. For one thing having had a beta of 142 at 4w1d my experience totally contradicts that. But there are also published charts of normal ranges of hcg during pg and while it certainly does peak it's in the tens of thousands at that point and though it does drop certainly it doesn't drop to nothing.

I have never heard about HPT not working for breastfeeding moms, but I wanted to explain the discrepency you point out here. 120 IU/mL is the same as 120,000 mIU/mL.

[wasabi]

Originally Posted by Queen of Cups

I have never heard about HPT not working for breastfeeding moms, but I wanted to explain the discrepency you point out here. 120 IU/mL is the same as 120,000 mIU/mL.

Ah of course you are right I guess I'm just used to mIU/mL. Especially since in early pg if you just use UI/mL you might well be at less than 1 until several weeks after you miss AF. However most HPTs will give a positive at 15mIU/mL-100mIU/mL. I haven't even heard of one that requires more than 200mIU/mL. So given the levels I posted previously even in the third tri you should still get a positive HPT.