Pregnancy Test Sensitivity

Sensitivity is written in mIU/mL. It’s roughly the lowest level of hCG a test is designed to pick up. A lower number means the test can detect lower levels.

Most pregnancy tests are around 25 mIU/mL, and a few early tests go down to 10 mIU/mL.

First Response Early Result (FRER) picks up about 6 mIU/mL roughly half the time, and 10 mIU/mL every time in FDA lab testing. In FDA clinical data, it was positive in 76% of pregnant cycles 5 days before the expected period.

What is my hCG level?

hCG varies a lot from person to person, and depends on the day you test. In one study, the average hCG was 49 mIU/mL around a missed period. To catch 95% of pregnancies the day after a missed period, a test needed to detect about 21 mIU/mL.

Here you can see hCG levels by week, and that they vary dramatically each week. You could be on the low, medium, or high end.

Where Hoopsy fits: Hoopsy tests are 20 mIU/mL. That’s a little more sensitive than most bulk tests, and it’s in the range that catches most pregnancies from around your period. It isn’t the most sensitive early test on the market. If you want the earliest possible answer at 9 DPO, an early-detection test like FRER is designed for that.

I’d rather tell you that than pretend otherwise.

Lots of people do both: they test daily through the two-week wait and keep one early test to double-check a squinter.

I have actually found through talking to women that most take 3 tests when checking, because they want to be really sure that the result is accurate, especially in the early days when the line might be faint.

All in all your pregnancy test sensitivity is important if you are testing earlier than the day your period is due, but if it is after, then any test should be able to give you the correct result.