Reviews are by family physicians, not experts on the topics. We invite you to comment on the reviews, suggest articles for review, or become a reviewer. Diagnosing pregnancy is a common procedure in primary care.
Patients often diagnose pregnancy themselves and visit doctors for confirmation.
Whether a patient is pregnant or not affects the management of many clinical situations. Physicians wonder how far to trust clinical histories and physical examinations and how much credence to put on pregnancy tests done at home. As the authors point out, standard textbooks do not provide the sensitivity and specificity of pregnancy signs and symptoms, such as amenorrhea, morning sickness, tender breasts, enlarged uterus, and patient suspicion of pregnancy. The authors also graded the quality of evidence in the studies of clinical signs. It then covers the many signs and symptoms of pregnancy and how to elicit these.