Explain how a pregnancy test works at the molecular level.

Question

Accepted Answer

Hey, everyone. Let's take a look at this question together. At what stage does the hormone detected by a pregnancy test become present in a woman's urine. Is it answer choice? A during ovulation. Answer choice B, shortly after the embryo attaches to the uterine lining. Answer choice C during the menstrual cycle or answer choice d immediately after fertilization. Let's work this problem out together to try to figure out which of the following answer choices is the stage where the hormone detected by a pregnancy test becomes present in a woman's urine. So, in order to solve this question, we have to recall what we have learned about the hormone that is detected by a pregnancy test to determine which of the following answer choices is the stage where that hormone becomes present in a woman's urine. And we can recall that this stage which is also known as implantation occurs when the embryo embeds itself into the uterine wall. As during this stage, the place starts to form and begins producing human chorionic gonadotropin or HCG, which human chorionic gonadotropin is the hormone detected by pregnancy tests. So the stage where the hormone detected by pregnancy tests would be present in a woman's urine occurs shortly after the embryo embeds itself into the uterine wall. Therefore, answer choice B is the correct answer. As it says shortly after the embryo attaches to the uterine lining is when the hormone detected by a pregnancy test or human chorionic gonadotropin would become present in a woman's urine. And all other answer choices are incorrect. I hope you found this video to be helpful. Thank you and goodbye.

Explain how a pregnancy test works at the molecular level.

Verified Solution

Key Concepts

Hormones in Pregnancy

Immunoassay Technique

Detection Threshold