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PinkStarburst5
Sharing my line progression tracking and HCG levels in case it’s helpful for anyone. I’m currently 12 weeks pregnant with my second baby. This is my rainbow baby (I had a chemical pregnancy in the cycle immediately before my current pregnancy), so I was cautiously optimistic in the early weeks of this pregnancy. My lines never progressed with my previous pregnancy, so tracking line progression (and going in to the clinic for HCG blood tests) brought me peace of mind this time around. Seeing others’ line progressions on the discussion board also helped.
**However, I know that tracking line progression can also do the opposite and give you anxiety on your TTC journey, which is not my intention at all—so please exit out of my post if it gives you any of these feelings.**❤️
Some caveats/notes:
- I used OPKs (Amazon cheapies…Pregmate brand) to track ovulation. DPO in my pic below is based off of the OPKs.
- Ignore the CD numbers in the pic below. The numbering is not correct due to my chemical pregnancy in January, and I couldn’t figure out how to manually correct the CD.
- I used Amazon cheapie pregnancy tests to track progression (easy@home brand); I also took First Response Early Response and ClearBlue Digital to confirm. Cheapie test strips have sometimes been shown to progress very slowly (from both my experience and others’ I’ve read online). It’s best to compare tests every other day instead of every day.
- Although testing with first morning urine is recommended, every woman is different. For me, my second morning urine was always more concentrated than my FMU (probably cuz I don’t drink enough water during the day haha)—and so I tested with SMU most of the time.
- I used the Premom app to track line progression. All photos of tests were taken within the time limit before the test dried. I always took the photos in the same spot with the same lighting for consistent comparison.
- Every woman is different! And every pregnancy is different! My line progression with baby #1 was a lot faster—perhaps because I started with a lower HCG level with baby #2.
- The range for HCG levels is huuuge, so please do not panic if your first HCG level is low. Mine was only 22 at 3w6d, but it continued to grow. As long as your levels are doubling about every two days, you’re good.
Hope this helps! Sending love and baby dust to everyone!❤️❤️
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pumpkinspicey
It's so interesting to see the numbers associated with at-home tests. Thanks for sharing!
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PinkStarburst5
@pumpkinspicey,
It is! I know that line darkness doesn’t always correlate with actual HCG levels, but it’s nice to see and get a general idea, especially if you aren’t able to go in for blood tests.
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M0mmyJeans
thank you for sharing! ❤️
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LunarArmadillo
Interesting, thank you for sharing! Your 13 dpo test looks very similar to my 15 dpo test from my first pregnancy, and my hcg was 78 that day. Good reminder that test darkness doesn't reflect actual blood hcg levels!
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PinkStarburst5
@LunarArmadillo,
So interesting to read your experience compared to mine. Yes, definitely a good reminder that line darkness does not always reflect HCG level. I’m sure it also varies by brand since some tests are more sensitive than others. Also, urine samples at any given time (depending on dilution) might not correlate to blood samples taken the same day. So many factors to consider!
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CatMags
this is so helpful. Thanks for sharing! I’m 10dp5dt and my lines are getting dark but I was expecting a dye stealer. Looking at your chart I feel much better! Couldn’t find anything to correlate the line to the beta numbers until this. Thanks!
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PinkStarburst5
@CatMags,
Congratulations!! I’m glad this helped. Wishing you a healthy pregnancy!❤️
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mc0711
this is SO helpful thank you for sharing! However when I upload my tests to premom, I don’t see the red number you are seeing? Am I missing something? Example attached
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Elleandco
@mc0711,
she has taken a screenshot and written over the image the blood test HCG level on the day corresponding to the test taken.
The urine tests can’t tell you the quantitative HCG level, just if it is present or not, what OP has done is compared blood test result progression with urine test line progression because it’s interesting to see
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PinkStarburst5
@Elleandco,
Exactly, thanks for explaining! I went in to clinic for a blood test every few days to check HCG levels because I had a chemical pregnancy previously.
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Aina1000
this is probably a stupid question but how or where are you able to find out the actual hcg level (numerical form)?
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gbabylove24
@Aina1000,
blood test
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PinkStarburst5
@Aina1000,
Not a stupid question! I went in for a blood test every few days because of my history of chemical pregnancies. You can request these from your OB. :)
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nmcrt
Thank you for sharing. Thoughts on my progression? Got blood drawn today. Nervous cause my last pregnancy stalled at 300 hcg for weeks before loss
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