False Negatives & False Positives

False negatives in pregnancy test results means that you're pregnant but the amount of hCG in your urine is just not high enough to be detected by the test stick.

This can happen if you've tested yourself too early and fail to diagnose your pregnancy. If you feel by instinct that you're indeed pregnant, don't do a re-test immediately. Try testing yourself again after a week. If you're indeed pregnant, the hCG in your body will double every forty-eight hours and testing yourself after a few days will throw up a positive result!

Although having false negatives can be demoralising especially when you're trying hard to conceive, the upside is regardless of what your stick tells you, nothing will stop the progress of your pregnancy and it will eventually show up to confirm the good news!

The major drawback of such a result however is that it'll cause a delay in seeing a doctor to take appropriate care of yourself and baby because you are unaware of your pregnancy.

But if you have missed your period and experience all signs of pregnancy, and continual testings yield negative results, you'll need to find out why from your doctor. You could be having an ectopic pregnancy, or your symptoms could be psychological, or pointing to other medical conditions that require immediate treatment.

False positives sometimes happen when you fail to follow the test kit's instructions thoroughly.

For example, you did not read your result within the required time frame. If you delay in reading the result, you may end up with false positives because the colour or sign shows up later as the chemicals are given a longer time to react with your urine, and NOT because you're pregnant.

It is therefore important to follow the instructions provided in your home pregnancy test kit as thoroughly as possible to avoid getting the wrong results.

Now, what would you do if you do get a positive result? Dance around for joy! Yeah!

After your victory dance, be sure to get in touch with your doctor soon enough. A home pregnancy test is not meant to replace a qualified physician's examination. You will need a full antenatal checkup and depending on the state of your health, you may require medical follow up to ensure a healthy pregnancy.

Most ordinary medications will not have an impact on your test resulst. This includes acetaminophen (such as Datril, Tylenol, Panadol, Phenaphen, Tempra and Anacin III, which are trademarks of brands of acetaminophen tablets), alcohol and birth control pills.

However, fertility medications that contain hCG will certainly derail your results and possibly give you a false positive as your urine will have traces of hCG from these medications, not because you're pregnant.

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