Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Online Pregnancy Test: Parabens and pregnancy - should you be concerned

Online Pregnancy Test

Parabens have been used as preservatives since the early 1920s, and are utilised in preventing the growth of bacteria. They are used in a wide range of consumer products, especially in cosmetics, including skin care products, shampoos and conditioners, facial and body cosmetics, sun screens, underarm products and soaps.

Just have a look in your bathroom cabinet and see how many products contain ingredients such as methyl-, propyl-, butyl- or ethyl-paraben or ingredients such as p-hydroxynenzoate (PHB) esters. Parabens have been widely accepted and used because they are effective preservatives, are inexpensive and are rapidly excreted from the body.

However, more recent studies, including ones in Japan and the UK have shown that parabens are oestrogenic, meaning they mimic the effects of oestrogen in the body, and may even contribute to problems including male fertility and an increased risk of breast cancer, because they are believed to be acting like hormones and disrupting the body's immune system.

For pregnant women, in particular, this raises issues with the type of make-up or skin lotions that they use because of the long exposure time on the skin, and the fact that anything that you put on your skin will get under the skin and potentially reach the fetus.

However, little scientific information exists on whether the use of products with low levels of parabens over many years results in an accumulation of parabens in body tissues and whether there are or are not any health issues associated with the use of consumer products including parabens.

A study first published in 2004 (Darbre, in the Journal of Applied Toxicology) detected parabens in breast tumours. However, the study was inconclusive failing to answer many of the questions raised. By way of example, this study did not demonstrate that parabens caused cancer, or even that they were harmful. In fact, the study did not review the possible levels of parabens in normal tissue.

But although parabens are not yet proven to be a danger to health, at a time when you are pregnant do you want to take any risk that is avoidable? Would you really be prepared to take that chance unless you were 100% certain that there were no harmful effects?

For many women, the answer is no and so they are changing their skin care regimes and choice of cosmetics to products that do not contain parabens as preservatives. This is often a decision made on the grounds that 'avoidance is the best strategy'. While the scientific jury is still out on the safety or otherwise of parabens, who can argue with that philosophy? The best advice is to be aware of the issue, carefully read the list of ingredients on any product that you put on your skin, look at the alternatives that are available, and then make an informed choice.

There are many now many specialist retailers online who stock a wide range of products for pregnant women that do not contain parabens and you should shop around to find which would be most suitable for you.

Online Pregnancy Test: Ensuring Accuracy

Online Pregnancy Test

Once a woman misses her period, she starts to have the “feeling pregnant” blues. Some start to “feel” dizzy. They begin craving for certain food. If you are indeed pregnant, then you are simply experiencing the early signs of pregnancy. If you are not pregnant, this may be a result of too much excitement or paranoia. Whether or not you're expecting a baby, this stage can bring emotional dilemma to you and even to your partner.

The only way to confirm your pregnancy is by taking a pregnancy test. But how do you ensure that you only get accurate pregnancy results? Are home pregnancy kits reliable enough? What is an online pregnancy test? Home pregnancy tests work by detecting pregnancy hormones, also known as Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) in your urine.

Such hormone is secreted by the placenta after a fertilized egg is implanted in the lining of your uterus. And so, once the hormone is found in your urine, your pregnancy test results will indicate a “positive.” But how soon can you conduct a pregnancy test? Most doctors and HPT manufacturers recommend that you take a home pregnancy test on the first day of your missed period which falls around the second week after conception.

There are; however, some kits which were especially designed to be more sensitive than the others and can be taken earlier. Just keep in mind to read the instructions very carefully and interpret the results correctly. Pregnancy test results administered at home are said to be 97% accurate. If you want a more accurate result, you can undergo through a blood test administered by your physician. This test is said to be more sensitive than HPTs and can even detect pregnancy on the second week of conception.

Apart from home pregnancy kits, an online pregnancy test may also being considered by some women. An online pregnancy test does not necessarily tell you whether you're pregnant or not. They simply compute the odds by asking a variety of questions about your menstrual cycle, how active your sexual life is, your last intercourse and a few other factors. You answer quizzes with these themes and then an automatic online computation which measures the odds and your chance of getting pregnant will give you the result. Online pregnancy tests should never be taken seriously. While, yes they help in determining your chances of getting pregnant, online calculations are never accurate.

The best way and the most accurate pregnancy results are those which are administered by your physician. As mentioned above, blood pregnancy tests are said to be more accurate than home pregnancy tests. However, if you can't wait, you can opt for an HPT once you start feeling the early signs of pregnancy just to give you a temporary confirmation. But then again to avoid false hopes, always check with your doctor and have another pregnancy test, this time using blood test, administered. There are many ways to take pregnancy tests. So stop wallowing in your dilemma now and get a confirmation as soon as you can.