Pregnancy Blood Tests: Do Routine Checkups Detect Pregnancy?

A routine blood test may not necessarily show if you are pregnant or not. Pregnancy is typically confirmed through a urine test or a blood test specifically designed to detect pregnancy hormones, such as human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG).

Pregnancy can be confirmed by checking for the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a hormone that is produced by the developing placenta. A qualitative hCG test can be performed on a blood sample to check if you are pregnant or not, but a quantitative measurement of the hormone is more commonly used to monitor the progression of pregnancy.