The most likely scenario, said both the ER doc and my family doc, is that I had a true, unexplainable false positive-which, by the way, almost never happens. My husband underwent a semen analysis to ensure his vasectomy had been effective (it was). In my case, there was no reason why hCG should have been be present, a follow-up blood test showed no hCG, and I’m confident I used my pregnancy test correctly. To get to the bottom of a false-positive pregnancy test, your doctor may ask questions and review your history. Even a cheap, dollar-store pregnancy test will not increase your chances of a false positive. Kirkham confirms that pricey tests aren’t more accurate than inexpensive ones. (You may see this referenced in online mom chats as an “evap line.”) An expired test also has the potential to skew the results a cheap test, on the other hand, does not. For example, you’re meant to check the test results within a few minutes, while the urine is still wet, because as it dries, an evaporation line may appear as a faint second line.

Testing problemsĪ false positive can occur if you haven’t properly followed the instructions on the pregnancy test. There’s even some medical literature that suggests women could end up with a false positive if they test immediately after having sex, says Kirkham, because there may be a trace amount of hCG in semen. There are also some medications that could potentially create a false positive, she says, like aspirin, the anti-seizure medication carbamazepine, and methadone. It typically takes weeks for hCG to fully leave your system, says Yolanda Kirkham, an OB/GYN at Unity Health and Women’s College Hospital in Toronto. It’s quite rare for hCG to be detectable in your urine or blood if you aren’t pregnant, but there’s a laundry list of reasons why it could happen: if you’ve recently given birth, had an abortion or experienced a pregnancy loss, or had fertility treatments where hCG was injected. If, like me, you have a positive test but you are not, in fact, pregnant, then you either have hCG in your body for another reason or something went wrong with the test. The presence of hCG confirms a pregnancy, and a lack of it suggests the individual is not pregnant. How at-home pregnancy tests workĪt-home pregnancy tests work by indicating whether hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) is present in your urine, says Mary Coll-Black, an OB/GYN at St.

It seemed the test I’d taken at home had produced a false positive, and my symptoms-the PMS, the bad cramping, the lateness-despite being unusual for me, were simply part of my monthly period. My blood test, she explained, showed not even a hint of the hormone hCG-meaning I wasn’t just not pregnant, but I had never been pregnant at all. “I’m sorry to tell you that you aren’t pregnant,” she said. Hours after waiting in the ER, a mandatory mask covering my fear and worry, the physician finally entered my room. My doctor asked me to head to the hospital. Then, nearly a week later, I started cramping and bleeding. Over the next few days, the shock settled and turned into excitement. My husband had undergone a vasectomy three years earlier. Back home, as my toddler tapped incessantly on the bathroom door, I watched as a faint second line appeared. I put it out of my mind until my cycle-tracking app alerted me that my period was a few days late-at which point I threw my three kids in our minivan and raced to the store for a pregnancy test. I’m no stranger to premenstrual symptoms, but a few months ago, I experienced a couple that were new to me: My breasts were tender and my lower back throbbed with pain.

Fake pregnant test