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Procedure for Analyzing Blood HCG

A hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG, is produced in many situations but mainly during pregnancy. HCG is present in the blood of a woman at all times, but during pregnancy the levels of HCG tend to rise. Blood tests to identify levels of HCG can be done for various reasons. Regardless of the reason, the test is performed in the same way, but the analysis might be a bit different.

  1. The Procedure

    • No special preparations are needed for this test. It is performed just as any other blood test that you may have received. If you have never had a blood test, here is what you can expect. Typically your arm is tied off with a rubber piece of material and blood is then taken from the inside elbow area or the back of the hand. A needle is inserted into a vein in one of these areas, and blood is drawn up through the needle into a tiny vial. The vial is then shipped off to the lab for either the qualitative or quantitative analysis, depending on your physician's orders.

    Qualitative Analysis

    • When the purpose of the HCG blood test is for a qualitative analysis, the lab is simply looking at whether or not HCG is present. The presence of HCG can mean a vast number of things, even for men. In men, the presence of HCG can indicate certain types of cancer of the reproductive organs.

      People tend to think that the presence of HCG in women means that they are pregnant. However, this is not always the case, so a quantitative analysis also may be needed when pregnancy is suspected.

    Quantitative Analysis

    • A quantitative analysis takes the qualitative analysis a bit further and is most commonly performed on women suspected of being pregnant. The levels of HCG present in the blood sample indicate a number of situations that a woman may experience. For example, continuously elevated levels of HCG in the blood are indicative of viable pregnancy. HCG levels that begin high during a suspected pregnancy but gradually decline can be indicative of a miscarriage, a spontaneous abortion or an ectopic pregnancy. HCG levels can also rise for other reasons that can cause pregnancy tests to issue false positive results. One such time when HCG tends to rise is as a woman's body changes hormonally due to menopause.

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