False Result With a hCG Test Kit
Although a false positive on a pregnancy test kit is rare, it’s something that happens from time to time and can be frustrating for women. There are, however, many issues that can cause a pregnancy test kit to show a misleading result. I can see where getting would be frustrating to a woman Before anyone relies on a home pregnancy test she should be made aware of some of the factors that can affect an accurate result.
What Causes This
You might be wondering why your home pregnancy test kit showed a misleading result. There are many reasons that can cause an inaccurate reading, but you can be reassured that if you do the test again, it will show an accurate result. It’s important to have a pregnancy test kit that you can trust. After all, what’s the point of having a pregnancy test kit if it doesn’t accurately test for pregnancy?
Recent Pregnancy
HCG, the pregnancy hormone, will not automatically go back to a non-pregnant level as soon as a birth or pregnancy loss occurs. If you take a home pregnancy test kit sooner than seven weeks after a birth or pregnancy loss, you may get a false positive result. So, a woman shouldn’t count on a pregnancy test kit any sooner than seven weeks after a pregnancy loss or a birth, unless she knows that her hCG levels have dropped below 5 mIU/ml. The only way to know for sure that your hCG levels are back down is to take a blood hCG test preformed by a health care professional. Another way you can know if your hCG levels are back to a non-pregnant number is to take a home pregnancy test kit, and it was negitive.
Evaporation Lines
An evaporation line is a line that can appear on a home pregnancy test after the test has been taken. This line is caused by the dye from the control line bleeding over. The control line is the line on a pregnancy test that appears when you are pregnant and when you are not pregnant. Evaporation lines can give the illusion of a positive pregnancy test if you look at the test more than ten minutes after it has been taken. If you think you have suffered from a misleading positive hCG test kit, it is likely that what you are seeing is an evaporation line. The results of a home pregnancy test are most accurate when read at the 5-minute mark, rather than after 10 minutes. The evaporation line, which can sometimes be mistaken for a positive result, may begin to sink in quicker than 10 minutes after taking the test. If you’re unsure whether or not the line you’re seeing is an evaporation line, it’s best to retake the test.
Chemical Pregnancies
Chemical pregnancies are actually quite common, even though many people have never heard of them. They are early pregnancy losses that occur around the time of your expected menstrual period. The causes are generally the same as any other type of miscarriages – most likely due to chromosomal abnormalities. It’s estimated that 1 in every 2 pregnancies end before live birth, so chemical pregnancies occur often. Pregnancy tests are now very sensitive, so it’s easy to get a misleading positive result due to a chemical pregnancy. A chemical pregnancy is when a woman gets a positive pregnancy test at home, but then goes on to experience her period with or without a second positive test. This can be confusing and frustrating for a woman, as she may believe she has experienced a false positive.
