I have a stupid Question

penad5 · January 2014

What is BETA? or BETA or bust? From looking at the glossary and reading post i'm guessing it's blood work to tell if you are preg? But i'm not sure and I've decided it's time to ask and stop being confused

Thanks

penad5 · January 2014

Thanks soo much!!!

Love4Science · January 2014

The hormone human chrorionic gonadotropin (HCG) is actually made of two strings of amino acids (or you can think about it as two "pieces of protein"). The two pieces are different from each other but they are stuck together to form HCG. One piece is called alpha and one piece is called beta.

HCG, LH, FSH, and TSH hormones are all made of 2 pieces of protein. The alpha piece is the same between all of these hormones, but each hormone has its own special beta piece; it's the difference in these beta pieces that make these hormones do different things in our bodies.

When they test for pregnancy, what they are actually testing for is the presence of the beta piece that is specific to HCG. No other protein in our body has this beta piece. That's why a pregnancy test is called "beta".

Nerd out.

penad5 · January 2014

@love4science wow best answer ever!!! Thanks for taking the time!!!

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