If you have missed a period and recently had unprotected sex, you may be pregnant. Pregnancy tests are most reliable from the first day of your missed period. You can carry out most pregnancy tests from the first day of a missed period. If you don't know when your next period is due, do the test at least 21 days after you last had unprotected sex. Some very sensitive pregnancy tests can be used even before you miss a period. You can do a pregnancy test on a sample of urine collected at any time of the day. It doesn't have to be in the morning. You can buy pregnancy testing kits from pharmacists and some supermarkets. They can give a quick result and you can do the
test in private. The following places provide free pregnancy tests: You may also be able to get a pregnancy test free of charge from your GP. All pregnancy tests detect the hormone human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), which starts to be produced around 6 days after fertilisation. Most
pregnancy tests come in a box that contains 1 or 2 long sticks. You pee on the stick and the result appears on the stick after a few minutes. All tests are slightly different, so always check the instructions. Pregnancy test resultsHome pregnancy tests are accurate as long as you follow the instructions correctly. A positive test result is almost certainly correct. However, a negative test result is less reliable. The result may not be reliable if you:
Some medicines can also affect the results. If you get a negative result and still think you're pregnant, wait a few days and try again. Speak to your GP if you get a negative result after a second test but your period has not arrived. Continuing with the pregnancyIf you're pregnant and want to continue with the pregnancy, contact your GP or a midwife to start your antenatal care. You can use the pregnancy due date calculator to work out when your baby is due. If you're not sure you want to be pregnantIf you're not sure about continuing with the pregnancy, you can discuss this confidentially with a healthcare professional. Your options are:
As well as a GP or a nurse at your GP surgery, you can also get accurate, confidential information – from the age of 13 – from the following:
All these services – including community contraceptive clinics – are confidential. If you're 13 or older, the staff won't tell your parents. They'll encourage you to talk to your parents, but they won't force you. If you're under 25 and would prefer advice specifically for young people, the sexual health charity Brook provides a range of services for young people. The Brook website contains information on pregnancy choices. You can also use the Ask Brook 24/7 service. Video: Is the pregnancy test accurate?In this video, a midwife explains when you can take a pregnancy test and how to do it properly. Media last reviewed: 5 February 2020 Maybe you can’t wait to have a baby. Or maybe that’s the last thing you’re hoping for. Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy Either way, if you think you might be pregnant, you need to know for sure. But what are the odds a positive pregnancy test might be wrong? “Home urine pregnancy tests are pretty reliable,” says Ob/Gyn Jonathan Emery, MD. “But there are some reasons you might get a false-positive result.” Dr. Emery explains when and why a pregnancy test might give a false positive — and what you can do to make sure the stick doesn’t lie. How do pregnancy tests work?When you get pregnant, your body produces a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG. Home pregnancy tests look for that hormone in your urine. If hCG is present, you should get a positive test result when you pee on a stick. But hCG levels start out very low and increase over time. If you take the test too soon after conceiving, it might say you’re not pregnant when you really are. In other words, timing can lead to a false negative. But what about a false positive? False positives aren’t super common, Dr. Emery says. But they’re not impossible. Some potential causes include: Early miscarriage or chemical pregnancyYou took a pregnancy test and got two lines. (Positive!) But a few days later, your period arrived in force. What gives? The most common reason this happens is an early pregnancy loss, also known as a chemical pregnancy. In this case, the test was accurate — there was a pregnancy, but it wasn’t a viable one, Dr. Emery explains. “It’s not technically false since a very early pregnancy did occur,” he says. “But this is the most common reason that a pregnancy test might appear to have been false.” Fertility medications“A lot of fertility treatments involve taking hCG injections,” Dr. Emery says. If you’ve been taking fertility medications, that hCG might still be floating around your system. That could trigger a positive pregnancy test, even if you’re not pregnant. To avoid that mix-up, wait at least two weeks after your last hCG injection to take a home pregnancy test, he says. Recent pregnancyIf you were recently pregnant, you might still have leftover hCG in your system. After childbirth, miscarriage or treatment for ectopic pregnancy, the hormone can remain in your body for up to four to six weeks, Dr. Emery says. “That could lead to a positive pregnancy test when your body just hasn’t cleared the hCG yet.” User errorHome pregnancy tests aren’t especially hard to use. But you still have to pay attention since a mistake can lead to incorrect results. If you wait too long to read the results, for example, or use more drops of urine than the test calls for? You might want to take the answer with a grain of salt. “If you don’t follow all the instructions, any results — positive or negative — could be false,” Dr. Emery says. Pregnancy test accuracy: How to get results you can trustLuckily, false positives are rare. And there are steps you can take to make sure your home pregnancy test gives you results you can trust.
Home pregnancy tests are inexpensive, private and quite reliable, Dr. Emery adds. “People often don’t believe what they’re seeing. But if you’ve used the test correctly and done it at the right time, it’s probably true.” Can you get a positive pregnancy test and then a negative and still be pregnant?This is because hCG levels rise rapidly in the first few days after implantation. It's also possible to get a positive test result followed by a negative result. If you use two different pregnancy tests, this could be the result of varying test sensitivity. Wait a few days and test again.
What should I do if my pregnancy test is positive and negative?What should you do? Wait until the following morning to test again with the first morning urine. If the test is still negative – keep the positive test and the second negative morning test or take a picture of both side by side. Make an appointment with your Ob-Gyn to have a blood pregnancy test if available.
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Why do i have a positive and negative pregnancy test
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