Today we will learn how to read and understand HCG blood test results.

Firstly, what is beta HCG test for pregnancy?
What is the role of human chorionic gonadotropin HCG?
HCG is the hormone directly measure the progression of pregnancy.

HCG is a short code for “human Chorionic Gonadotropin”

Human: means it’s specific for human female or male
Chorionic: related to chorion, the part of the women which carry the fetus inside her.
Gonado-: means related to reproductive glands and organs.
-tropin: proteins specialized or hormones of the protein family.
Sometimes you may show some terms around the word “HCG”

• Beta sub unit: means that the test is measuring the hormone by detecting the “beta unit of protein chain”, this is because the hormone “LH” have the alpha unit as the HCG hormone, so that the test specific for the pregnancy hormone “HCG” will measure only the Beta unit, (sometimes written as B-HCG or Beta subunit-HCG”)
• Serum: means the test carried from a serum sample (the blood sample taken from you is further separated into two parts before being tested; the serum which is the liquid part and contains most of body hormones and proteins, the second part consists of blood cells of different types and coagulation proteins.)
• Quant. : stands for “quantitative” means “by numbers or by count.
• Qual. : means “qualitative”, qualitative test is carried to know whether the hormone found or not, i.e. “Positive or Negative Results”.

What is a quantitative HCG blood test?
What is the difference between quant. and qual. test?
qualitative test carried to tell if pregnancy is positive or negative at the first signs of missed period, while quantitative test is best for following up the course of pregnancy and viability of the pregnancy

Some variations shown in the HCG lab reports:
hcg quant 1
hcg blood test
hcg qt levels
hcg ser ql
hcg serum qual
hcg serum quant ranges
beta quantitative

Women ask for what does IU/l or miu/ml means in pregnancy test?
Iu/l means how much units of pregnancy hormone are found in each liter of your blood, similarly the miu/ml is the smaller unit of iu/l, which “m” means “micro”, “iu” means “international unit or just unit”, “L” means “liter”, “ml” means milliliter”, and “ng” means “nanogram”.

Interpretation of the lab HCG results report

1- Serum B-HCG quant. Test: the name of test and type of the tested sample,
2- Result: is the spot show your current tested count of b-hcg hormone.
3- Measuring unit: show the unit used to report your result,
4- Flags spot: H means High, L means Low, hcg lab report rarely show H & L Flags.
5- Reference ranges: Normal values ranges for the specific period of pregnancy episode, e.g. the range from 7 weeks LMP to 8 week LMP is from about 7000 iu/l and up to 229000 iu/ml, the first value is the lowest expected normal level of BHCG during 7-8 weeks LMP, and the second value is the highest expected normal level of hcg hormone during 7-8 weeks of normal pregnancy.
6- Indicate the column’s headers
7- Indicate which family of medical tests is the pregnancy test
8- The information header and logo header.

How to read B-HCG blood test levels chart or table?

HCG blood test chart is a table show you what are normal hcg levels corresponding to your date of pregnancy.
The column on the left represents the period of gestation by weeks post last menstrual period, sometimes reported in the days past ovulation “DPO”.

The column on the right usually contains the expected normal counts of HCG hormone for each period.
In the reference ranges part: the first number show means the lowest expected hcg value, the second number show the highest expected hcg value, both values are the expected range for the corresponding period of gestation “in weeks or DPO”.

When you start searching for your hcg right level: calculate the right age of gestation, start with the left column and choose the right week or DPO you’re currently in, the corresponding values are the normal seen values for your period of pregnancy, if you find your hcg value is higher than the expected values in the chart, please do not be scarred of molar pregnancy or hurry to expect twins, low hcg level than the expected values in the chart is usually an inevitable or unstable pregnancy.

How to understand HCG levels chart for twins?
how fast do your hcg levels increase
If you want more explanation of your hcg blood test level, comment with your values and information, or send me a private message.