Known as the "pregnancy hormone," human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a type of hormone that is produced in large amounts during pregnancy, with levels peaking during the first 8 to 11 weeks of pregnancy, and can be detected in the urine of pregnant women with at-home pregnancy tests.

However, pregnant women aren't the only ones who produce it. Certain cancers and other medical conditions can lead non-pregnant women and men to produce moderate to high levels of hCG.

Here's what you need to know about hCG, whether you're pregnant or not.

"HCG in its regular form is produced almost exclusively by a pregnant woman by special cells which become a part of the placenta, called the syncytiotrophoblast which is why we see it in such high levels in pregnancy," says Dr. Kristina Mixer, MD with Spectrum Health.

She explains that during pregnancy, hCG's primary role is to support the production of the hormone progesterone by the ovaries until the placenta is sufficiently formed and can produce adequate amounts of progesterone on its own, typically by 10 weeks gestation.

That's important because progesterone is absolutely vital for healthy reproduction. It's responsible for facilitating the successful attachment of the embryo within the uterine cavity, modulating the immune system to prevent miscarriages, and for suppressing uterine contractions. In certain situations of recurrent pregnancy loss, healthcare providers will sometimes prescribe progesterone or hCG as a way to support the pregnancy early on.

Once you've conceived, the body begins to produce hCG as soon as a fertilized egg implants into the uterine wall, and it typically takes another 8 to 14 days before the hCG levels rise enough to be detected by an at-home pregnancy test. Most urine pregnancy tests will detect a pregnancy at the time of your first missed period.

A woman can exhibit elevated hCG levels after a molar pregnancy, as well. Molar pregnancy happens after an egg is fertilized, but the tissue that usually grows into the placenta forms an abnormal growth, instead. So the egg never develops into an embryo.

Women often have the molar tissue removed, but sometimes it can return and develop into a uterine tumor. This can lead to certain types of cancer like choriocarcinoma and malignant gestational trophoblastic disease. Since these tumors involve the same cells that produce hCG, women with these conditions often have elevated hCG levels, as well, even though they're not pregnant.

"In non-pregnant women or men, levels are usually very low and do not play an important role in daily hormone function," Mixer says. However, there are some situations that could lead to moderate to high hCG levels in a non-pregnant woman or man, such as:

"All of these conditions should be discussed with and managed by a physician or healthcare provider," says Mixer.

In addition to medical conditions that could lead to elevated hCG levels, some cases of high hCG are the result of hCG injections. "We often see this in male athletes in an effort to boost testosterone production," Mixer says. This occurs because hCG is very similar to the pituitary hormone LH, which stimulates the production of testosterone in the testes.

HCG can also be used as an identifying marker during pregnancy to detect Down's Syndrome. "A certain subtype of hCG can be measured to predict the likelihood of Down Syndrome affecting the fetus," Mixer says.

Certain types of cancerscan produce higher-than-normal levels of hCG in both men and women. The types of cancers that can lead to elevated hCG levels include:

Measuring hCG levels in the above types of cancers can help identify tumors in the body, diagnose cancer, or evaluate how well a cancer treatment is working.

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What you need to know about hCG, the 'pregnancy hormone' - INSIDER

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