HCG Levels in Early Pregnancy

What is HCG?

HCG or Human chorionic gonadotropin is known as glycoprotein hormone and is produced during pregnancy i.e. immediately after the embryo is fertilized which later becomes a part of the syncytiotrophoblast or placenta. The main function of HCG is preventing the break up of corpus luteum and maintaining the level of progesterone which is of utmost importance during pregnancy.

Undergoing HCG testing helps confirm early pregnancy and helps your doctor diagnose any health problems if the level of HCG is not maintained as it is known that HCG is known to produce certain kinds of tumors. You need to undergo certain blood tests to measure the level of HCG in your body.

HCG helps confirm pregnancy

Having missed your periods and in spite of having no symptoms of pregnancy like morning sickness, nausea or vomiting a simple pregnancy test done at home in the early stages will help confirm your pregnancy. If HCG is detected then pregnancy is confirmed as this hormone is detected only if you are pregnant.

In case the result shows a slight change in the test report then there are every chances of your being pregnant but if the report states negative then this simply means that the traces of HCG is not high enough and you may need to perform this test after a few days to confirm pregnancy.

Doctors usually ask you to go in for a blood test to confirm pregnancy as it has been found that if HCG level or as referred by the doctors the beta numbers is more than 25 it means that you are pregnant.

How does HCG level help to confirm your due date?

If you are having irregular periods or may have not thought of starting a family then it becomes difficult to figure out your due date as you may not know the date of your last menstrual cycle, the doctor then recommends a ultrasound test to detect the fetus and if the level of HCG is around 2000 only then can the fetus be detected. Every woman has different levels of HCG during early pregnancy and this level cannot help the doctors fix the due date.

Is HCG level and pregnancy related problems interconnected?

If you have had a miscarriage previously then your doctor may recommend HCG level testing quite often during early pregnancy or if you are experiencing spotting during early pregnancy then too you may have to undergo HCG testing quite frequently.

Change in the level of beta number drastically indicates some pregnancy related problems. If the level of HCG is less than the required level then there are chances of miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy or molar pregnancy which may indicate that there is an abnormal growth of the tissue rather than the development of the fetus.

Increase in the level of HCG during first trimester indicates the chances of twin pregnancy as it has been found that women who have conceived after the use of fertility drugs have every chances of having more than two babies or multiple births.

Monitoring the level of HCG in the body thus becomes important in order to have a complication free pregnancy.