Human Growth Hormone in Pregnancy

[HANNAH S]

How far along do you have to be for HGH to be present in the blood? Is it possible to be pregnant and for it not to show in a blood test?

I think I could be at *most* one and a half weeks pregnant but the blood test came back negative. Is there any reason this might be?

Thank you.

[tinmuning]

Just in case you're wondering (since your heading is about HGH in pregnancy): Studies on HGH and its effects on animal reproduction have not been carried out. It has not been seen that HGH can harm the fetus during pregnancy, nor that it can affect reproduction. Nevertheless, HGH should only be taken during pregnancy if absolutely necessary.

However, if you meant HCG instead of HGH, in a pregnant woman the level of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) increases throughout the first trimester, then gradually decreases over time.

As to whether you can still be pregnant even if the blood test came out negative, usually, blood tests for pregnancy are more reliable than urine or home pregnancy tests. But they can be wrong. That means, they can show false negative or false positive results in some women. The test may fail to detect human chorionic gonadotropin even when a woman is pregnant if the test is done too early. It takes at least 7 days after fertilization for the test to become positive. In most cases, by the time a woman has missed her period, the test will be positive if she is pregnant.