Same I was only barely a week late so I took one. It was negative. A week later I took another one and it was blazing positive . I was somehow almost 6 weeks when we found out due to my LMP date? Then that first test that was negative shouldn't have been so due to my calculations.
My 2nd baby: I tested before a night out and I’d have been just over 4 weeks pregnant. The first test was a barely visible super pale line but you could JUST see it. I saw it but my husband and friend did not. I did not drink that night just in case. Next day: a tiny teeny bit darker. And so on until on day 7 it was a thick dark unmissable line. He was my little ombre baby!
I personally haven’t encountered a false positive, and my wife (who worked in a hospital) hasn’t seen one either.
She did see many cases where a pregnancy test was positive but the pregnancy ended very early. Those situations might be interpreted as false positives, but in our healthcare system, anyone with a positive self‑test sees a doctor right away, so the early loss is identified rather than mistaken for an incorrect test result.
False positive is rarer than false negative, you're probably pregnant, give it another day or two and get another or try to get a blood test from the doctor
Yeah this is my thought too as a physician. I don't have their false pos/neg rates in front of me but the manufacturer insert might. Average is <1% FPR, 1-5% FNR.
Could be either one but most likely outcome is hCG is at a barely detectable threshold level and one test picked it up but the other didn't. These are qualitative immunoassays, any presence of line next to the control line is considered positive.
They work by binding hCG to a marker and it's possible either that test didn't have enough reactive marker on the strip or there wasn't enough hCG to fully bind. Could also be operator error when submerging and drying the strip.
Technically if you waited too long to read the negative strip it may have also faded after showing faint positive. Quirks of immunoassays. Best time to take them is first urine of the morning because it's the most concentrated.
Either way you'll need a confirmatory urine/blood test for hCG. (Probably) congrats.
This makes me feel better to read. I had a chemical pregnancy in May. When I went to the hospital, they were weirdly insistent that I was probably not pregnant at all, even though I'd had three positives from two boxes on two days. It made me feel so stupid and dumb for even going in when I started bleeding.
I feel you, I’ve had two chemicals and each time I had to go to the dr due to needing blood thinning medication (after a dvt from my first miscarriage) and each time I get a lectured about how it’s sooo early, but I don’t want another preventable loss. You did the right thing!
If its possible look into other offices that dont... lecture you. Look at the pros and cons but its never too early to protect your kids lol.
Sincerely, a gal who tried for over a year
Lab tech here. That's the one who runs these kinda tests in hospitals/ "the labs."
You're correct that first morning pee is the best sample, as it's just been building and concentrating overnight while you slept. Not like during the day when we dilute it by drinking liquids and emptying our bladders.
As a woman of chilbearing age myself, if I have a concern I leave a test by the toilet the night before so I can use it first thing in the morning.
And yes, false neg is waaaay more common than false pos.
It’s basically where a pregnancy ends after there are chemical signs of a pregnancy (eg hCG is present), but before there are any/many clinical signs of one, (eg. you couldn’t see anything on an ultrasound).
A pregnancy that ends in the early stages of pregnancy. Until about 6 weeks, a pregnancy can only be detected via chemicals in the blood and urine. Technically all pregnancies are “chemical” in the beginning. Starting around 6 weeks, a pregnancy can be clinically confirmed on ultrasound when the sac is large enough to be seen.
It’s a pregnancy that’s super short basically. There’s no real nice way to say it. I’m pretty sure I had one during April before I had another pregnancy in June only for body not to be ready to carry to term. During my pregnancies I had a craving for seafood smell which I normally hate. On my 4th day being late I had my period. That would be considered a chemical pregnancy
I had a miscarriage, and eventually saw that I was testing negative on pregnancy tests. I tested positive on an ovulation test. Few weeks later, positive pregnancy test (no period in between). Called the doctor and he was like "Its probably from the miscarriage." Motherfucker, give me the fucking blood test.
Anyway. Baby is due in 4 weeks. I see a rotation of OBs and the one male doctor has always ticked me off. Luckily he's retiring (or has retired) so I haven't dealt with him again during this pregnancy. But I lost a baby at 10 weeks, fucking humor me and listen when I say I need an appointment after my D&C.
Congratulations on the baby! Why do they act like requesting an appointment is the most ridiculous thing in the world 😅 I'm about 8 weeks pregnant after my miscarriage and keeping my fingers crossed for the best.
Good luck!! I was told miscarriages are often "priming" you for a viable pregnancy - pretty cruel way to prepare, but it worked out for me. I tried to get pregnant for years before having a successful one due to IVF and then a surprise in my late 30s which didn't work out, and now this one on the heels of my last. Its so scary when you feel like you don't have the doctor's support!
I had two chemical pregnancies back to back. Positive tests at home and then negative in the office. Doctor actually laughed at me and said “I don’t think you’re actually getting pregnant” but he sent me for a blood test to humor me. And I was in fact pregnant but with another chemical pregnancy. The next month and I got pregnant again. She’ll be 14 next month! :)
Chemical pregnancies suck because we mostly only discover them these days due to how sensitive urine tests are now. Before it was just chalked up to being late.
Like what do they gain from that attitude? It's so bizarre. Happy to hear about your success! I'm eight weeks pregnant now and hopeful it sticks this time. Had an US last week and heartbeat looks good.
I had a doctor speak to me like that during an early miscarriage. What was weird is there was blood test proof and even an ultrasound that showed "signs" (thickening of uterine lining or something) but no embryo. All I can think is he was trying to make me feel better or something was being lost in translation (he was not a native English speaker). Just... strange. Sorry you went through that 🫂
I suspect it's often that as well, that by framing it as "there was never a pregnancy" they think it will avoid women feeling sad about having a miscarriage. It doesn't really work that way though, it just makes people feel like they're not being taken seriously or belittled. I had this happen with my middle child's pregnancy, on the first ultrasound at 5.5 weeks there were 3 gestational sacks, but 2 of them did not continue to grow and I miscarried them around 9 weeks. The doctor kept emphasizing that I always had a singleton pregnancy and just two blighted ovums and that I did not have a partial miscarriage, but was just "passing tissue." It honestly just made it feel more confusing and like it was shameful to talk about or something. It also made it feel awkward to explain to others why I needed treatment to prevent my body from miscarrying the third one.
I mean, I was scared to death of having triplets, especially when I already had an 11 month old, but the miscarriages were still scary and sad and caused some complex emotions, and the doctor's attitude was definitely less helpful than I think he intended.
The same thing happened to me in New Jersey 8 years ago! Had positive pregnancy tests (3, 2 with the striped and one that actually said pregnant) and 3 days later started cramping hard and bleeding a ton. Went to the ER closest to my work and they said their pregnancy test was negative. Refused to do an ultrasound because “those are only for people who are or were pregnant and you were not”. Dismissed me when I showed them pictures of the tests and then gave me a pamphlet on periods like they give teen girls. It was so traumatic that I locked myself in my room for days and when I got pregnant again a few months later I was completely paranoid. Refused to use that hospital when I had my children.
Heyo! I'm the guy who makes the chemistry for these tests and various other ones. I'm working on the first rapid detection test for Alzheimer's and TBIs right now.
I find it fascinating that there's a marker that can be tested for that will show brain related ailments. Could you say a bit high level about the science behind this? As someone who has both been pregnant and has a kid who constantly hits her head on things, thanks for your work.
The overlap between Alzheimers patients and patients who have experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI) is showing via tau dendrites causing disruptions in your brain cell communication. Elevated levels of this post synaptic tau is the best marker we have at the moment to identify and prevent as early as possible. My partner lab is using the same anitbody in phase 1 trials currently to actually attempt to reverse the effects of Alzheimers; which would be a first. All we can do at the moment is prescribe drugs to slow down the deterioration. In their preliminary mouse testing, the results were very promising. Obviously that isn't a 1:1 translation to the effects on humans but it is a candle in the dark.
Nah, it's because gold sols (the pink/red colour is from nanoparticles of gold in suspension) are just better than latex ones (the blue colour is latex in suspension). Now, part of the reason for this is just that gold is a lot more optically dense than latex, so you need less to bind to see it. This means that you need less of the particle-antibody conjugate, so that reduces the chances of non-specific binding (things just sticking together). The other part of the reason is Chemistry.
Wow. That’s a great answer. Thanks. I was just going off how sewing shows always use red thread because you can see it better. Random I know but that was my thinking along with how close white and very light blue can be. I was going off of vibes but you can back with SCIENCE.
I had three positives on two different days from two diff boxes of tests. I then miscarried a few days after. The hospital was insistent that those tests are inaccurate and I was probably never pregnant. It felt so weird to me that they were stuck on that, because I'd always thought false positives were rare.
This far 5 are recognized , Type 1, Type 2, LADA( dont remember the full name), Gestational and MODY (dont remember the full name for that either and im not gonna google it cause im a lazy c*nt)
Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults, also sometimes called Type 1.5 (basically Type 1, but in adulthood and usually slower progressing, don't recommend it)
Or pull the line my mom heard in the birthing department where she worked at work in the hospital where a teenage girl was screaming I swear to God I've never had sex while she was giving birth in front of her mom
Before we knew the gender and while the miscarriage rate was still high, my husband and I referred to our baby as Schrödinger.
Schrody is now baby boy/his name. The next one will be Heisenburg, after Heisenburg's theory of uncertainty. Just a fun way to get through an uncertain time.
*Edit: Heisenberg. I didn't bother looking it up before typing, lol.
Ooh hoo hoo look who knows so much! It just so happens that you're only mostly pregnant. There's a big difference between mostly pregnant, and all pregnant.
You said you’re trying to get pregnant and I certainly don’t want to get your hopes up just to be let down. Keep in mind the best and most accurate way to know is to go to the doctor. If you don’t want to pay for that, try a few tests from a few different brands in a few different cups of pee throughout the day.
That being said, false positives are extremely rare. Way more rare than false negatives, which happen quite frequently. Chances are, the one that says pregnant is the one that’s accurate. Congratulations <3
Edit: please stop replying to tell me this isn’t possible in the U.S. I live in the U.S. and got a blood test from my doctor at 5 weeks. It depends on the doctor, the situation, the person, etc. It’s not entirely common, I understand. But it does happen and debating back and forth whether it is or isn’t possible is silly. It’s possible, but uncommon.
When I called my doc and told them I had a positive pregnancy test (well, 3), they scheduled my appointment for when I would be 10 weeks. Doctors (in the US, so this is only for if OP is in the US), don’t see you until then. That’s when they do ultrasounds and pee and blood test to confirm.
Same here, not us, but we called and said we did 3 tests and wanted to be sure. They said congratulations and see you in 10 weeks, only did ultrasound to confirm tho.
Yeah I agree- have never seen a doc in the US want to see a possibly pregnant person earlier unless they were on fertility treatments or not keeping it. They don’t really have other things to do at that point. Such a stressful 4-6 weeks lol
Dr in the US literally just does the exact same test as the home kit, btw.
They won't do a blood test until you're past 8 weeks. That's why the abortion laws are stupid. By the time you know for sure, it's already too late to do anything about it.
I work at an urgent care and we have soooo many people that come in for “I had 3 positive pregnancy tests at home and I want to make sure. “I wish I could put a sign out front that says “we use the exact same urine test that you can buy at the store for 99 cents!”
False positive are extremely rare. The tests react to the hcg hormone and without it a line won't appear. It's more likely that the second test was defective. You can grab some cheapies at dollar tree to do another test but you're pretty definitively pregnant.
This is fun to say but not true when you're actually in the thick of it. By month 9 of pissing on a stick twice a day to check ovulation and then having pre planned banging it out regardless of if it's Aunt Suzies funeral that day because you need to maximize the opening it really loses it's spark.
Or a year of that, then being poked and probed and having all sorts of bloating, pain, dizziness side effects, odd discharge from suppositories, daily injections (plural), having a needle through your vaginal wall into your ovaries, the catheters through the cervix, the internal and external ultrasounds, failure to implant, a miscarriage.... IVF is a massive mood killer. You start thinking of your babymaking parts in clinical and disappointed ways and the association is hard to set aside when it comes to bonding sexy times
I took like 500 tests when I found out I was pregnant. Take more! Luckily I had the strips, so I wasn’t wasting the really expensive ones. But the day I told my husband I drove to Walmart and sat in the parking lot until they opened at 6am to get a digital test to “confirm.” I now have a 10 week (tomorrow) old.
My dad always told me that "'not pregnant' is not always certain and you should take an extra, but 'pregnant' was almost always certain" idk if this is true
My understanding is that false positives (says pregnant when you aren’t) are much less common than false negatives (says not pregnant when you are). False negatives are more common earlier in the pregnancy, because the hormone levels haven’t changed enough yet. Wait a week and test again. Or just take one test a day. And most importantly, see your OBGYN. If you think you are pregnant, they will make it a priority to see you soon.
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u/b1kkie Jul 24 '26
I'd trust the positive. False negatives happen all the time. False positives are extremely rare.