some technical stuff about Beta HCG

From all the websites i have covered, the general idea is that one HCG blood test is not enough to indicate the status of the pregnancy.

Normal HCG blood levels vary widely between different women and in different pregnancies for the same woman. Be very careful when trying to 'interpret the numbers'. During the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, the level itself is NOT as important in how much it is rising every few days. Some normal pregnancies will have quite low HCG levels and still progress, ending in the birth of a healthy baby. The best way to confirm if a pregnancy is progressing is to repeat the blood test in 2 to 3 days time, and perhaps again 2 to 3 days after that. This is aimed at seeing if the HCG level is rising adequately.

what exactly is the indicative range, normal HCG blood levels vary so widely that the indicative range can be quite meaningless. For eg, these are the values i got from different websites. (all are measured in terms of miu/ml or iu/l)


Weeks of pregnancy after last period
Days after conception
HCG level for single baby (mIU/ml or IU/L) (i havent figured oout how to do tables here- so bear with this)

Week 3 - 7 - 0 to 5
Week 4 - 14 (next period due) - 5 to 426
Week 5 - 21 - 18 to 7340
Week 6 - 28 - 1,080 to 56,500
Weeks 7 to 8 - 35 to 42 - 7,650 to 229,000
Weeks 9 to 12 - 49 to 70 - 25,700 to 288,000

(taken from http://www.birth.com.au/class.asp?class=6620&page=8)
as compared to this other one taken from (http://www.babyhopes.com/articles/highhcglevels.html)

Normal Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) levels:
0-1 week: 0-50 IU/L
1-2 weeks: 40 - 300
3-4: 500 - 6,000
1-2 months: 5,000 - 200,000
2-3 months: 10,000 - 100,000
2nd trimester: 3,000 - 50,000
Non-pregnant females: <5.0
Postmenopausal: < 9.5

which one to follow? - the best guide will still be your gynae.