section_path: Diagnosis/Biomarkers
section_name: Biomarkers
paragraph_text: Biomarkers
  
  Pregnancy detection can be accomplished using one or more various pregnancy tests, which detect hormones generated by the newly formed placenta, serving as biomarkers of pregnancy. Blood and urine tests can detect pregnancy by 11 and 14 days, respectively, after fertilization. Blood pregnancy tests are more sensitive than urine tests (giving fewer false negatives). Home pregnancy tests are urine tests, and normally detect a pregnancy 12 to 15 days after fertilization. A quantitative blood test can determine approximately the date the embryo was fertilized because hCG levels double every 36 to 72 hours before 8 weeks' gestation. A single test of progesterone levels can also help determine how likely a fetus will survive in those with a threatened miscarriage (bleeding in early pregnancy), but only if the ultrasound result was inconclusive.