HCG Levels in Early Pregnancy

Before we discuss HCG, let's first establish what it is and what it stands for. HCG is Human chorionic gonadotropin, as you can see it is a bit of a mouth full so it is no wonder it is shortened to HCG for convenience. Basically, HCG is a hormone that helps us to identify whether or not a woman is pregnant.

After conception, HCG is produced. If you were to do a pregnancy test at this time, even before you had missed your period it is very likely that the test would be positive. The HCG levels in early pregnancy are pretty low, they start off small and build up as the pregnancy progresses.

The peak of HCG levels is at the end of the first trimester, or first three months. At this time there can be as much as 100,000 mIU/ml, this figure drops dramatically in the second trimester and more so in the third trimester. In our opinion, it is not worth losing too much sleep about HCG and what it can mean to your pregnancy.

Instead, use the more common physical symptoms as barometers for your health during pregnancy. If you must know about HCG levels and what they mean, ask your medical doctor to go through these with you, we say this because all women are different. What you might learn from a website may not necessarily mean anything to you personally, with the wrong information it is easy to jump to the wrong conclusions and cause undue stress or anxiety.