Forum home Pregnancy Pregnancy

Confusing pregnancy test result. Help!

Hi everyone. Im new to this site but i was hoping that maybe you could help me. I was due on my period today and havent come on. Im been urinating frequently and so tired. So i took a test today however the result was quite weird lol. I dipped 2 of these tests into a jar of my urine 1 came out negative, and the other had half of a faint line that showed up. I dnt kno if it means sumthing or just test was weird lol. If i can put a picture on here i will. Just need to figure out how lol xxx
«13456723

Replies

  • Faint line to me suggests a positive reading!! I'd wait a couple more days before testing again as early tests can be inaccurate due to the lower levels in your urine!! Good luck and I hope you get the result you're hoping for image
  • Thank u so much lol the result was so weird x
  • Mine were really faint to begin with, then I bought a clear blue digital one (after doing several normal ones lol) and it said pregnant 1-2 weeks!!!
  • Wen i did my 1st pregnancy test wen i had my daughter the result was so clear that the pregnancy line was more visable than the ova line lol xx
  • Maybe you're testing earlier on then last time? I'm not sure but from my experience and things I've read I think, faint line or not, it's generally positive!!! Fingers crossed for you!!
  •  

    Hello everyone image I get really annoyed when I read all these articles and comments about 'evaporation lines' on home pregnancy tests, and especially, when such comments or articles are said to be written by so-called 'experts' or 'clinicians', and which seem to leave a large number of women with all sorts of doubts and anxieties about test-results. So I thought I would sit and write a few facts about various similar tests. I am a clinician and I also have much experience using various tests within laboratories or clinical settings. I have also been trained in the medical micro-biology (lab-testing). The home pregnancy tests are 'assay' tests which rely on specific reactions between chemicals, to produce coloured lines. The 'control' lines of the home pregnancy tests are assayed areas which are designed to react with specific chemicals commonly found in urine, and which, when detected, react with the chemicals in the control-line assays (strips/areas) and turn them a certain colour (pink or blue depending on the test used). However, the 'pregnancy' assay (test -area/strip) is designed to change colour only if it comes into contact with the HCG hormone – the 'pregnancy' hormone. HCG is only produced when an egg has been fertilised. So then, if no conception has occurred, then no HCG will be produced by the body, and therefore, no HCG will ever be found in the urine. Moving on... sometimes fertilisation occurs and HCG is produced for a while, but for some reason, the body detects that the pregnancy will not be successful (not 'viable') and the fertilised egg ceases to continue to divide and develop. So the pregnancy stops. However, until the pregnancy stops, the woman will still be producing HCG, and may well have some of the other 'usual' symptoms of pregnancy (though some women have absolutely no symptoms for a considerable period of time), and; although the pregnancy may have stopped almost as soon as it began; it may still take a couple weeks or so for all the HCG in the body to be disposed-of via the urinary system. Also, it may still take a couple weeks or so for the 'symptoms of pregnancy' to stop altogether. This process of fertilisation, followed by a very early termination is known as a 'chemical pregnancy', and many women can have these, whereby the woman is sure she is pregnant, but then she later has a period – even though a home pregnancy test might have shown a faint or clear line in the first couple weeks or so – and hence is why some women are left wondering why their period returned. So for those women whereby, unfortunately, fertilisation has occurred, but the pregnancy was not viable, they were pregnant, but the pregnancy stopped. However, for those women whose egg(s) is fertilised, and for whom the pregnancy continues, then they will continue to produce HCG from the moment of fertilisation, and, those levels of HCG will rise over the coming weeks, and will, at some stage, be readily detectable either by home pregnancy tests, or by blood tests via their local Doctor or Clinic. So then, back to home pregnancy tests ….. I have already said that the control lines react to molecules found within normal urine, and, when those molecules pass over those control-line areas (control 'assay' areas) then the molecules come into contact with other molecules within the control assay and they bind together. Indeed, they are attracted to each other by a process known as 'chemotaxis'. And on contact, two different molecules form a 'complex' which changes both it's shape and it's colour – hence the coloured control lines you see in the test areas. However, if the right molecules are not present in the urine, then no other molecules can bind to the control molecules – and no colouration will occur – so the test wil

  • Cont...  

    be 'void' – and another test should be done. However, in the event of carrying out a test – and the control lines change colour as they should, then the woman or couple is anxiously waiting (if they wish to have a baby that is) for the 'positive' or 'pregnancy' line to change colour too! And here is where we need to get onto the subject of the 'faint' lines and the 'evaporation' lines that people keep talking about. Going back to the test-strip; the 'pregnancy' line contains different molecules to the molecules of the 'control' lines; and the molecules in the pregnancy line/strip (the pregnancy test-assay) will only react – and change colour – in the presence of one other molecule; and that is the HCG hormone. No other molecule or hormone will cause it to change colour. Changing the subject slightly, if we take a pure white tissue and add one drop of water onto it, the area of the tissue containing the water will now have turned slightly 'grey' – because it's wet. But it wont turn pink or blue. So if we carry out a home pregnancy test and the control lines are pink or blue (depending on the test you use), but the 'pregnancy' strip remains white or slightly grey – even hours after the test – then there has been no HCG detected in the urine, to mix with the pregnancy-strip molecules and to make them change colour (which is what you will be hoping for). So if the strip remains white or slightly grey – no matter how many hours or days after you did the test - then the strip is simply wet from the urine, but it does not contain any HCG. So, either you are not pregnant, or, if your period has stopped, then you may still be pregnant but your HCG is so low that it cannot yet be detected by the test. However, if you do a test and you get the faintest coloured line in the 'pregnancy' test-strip/assay area on the test, then HCG has definitely been detected. If it's faint, then HCG is present in very low concentration, and if it is a dark coloured line, then the concentration of HCG is higher. But whatever the concentrations, provided you get a colour in he 'pregnancy' area, then you are pregnant at the time of testing. And now for the famous 'evaporation lines' that so many people – and 'experts' talk about. To start-with, no evaporation line will be coloured (pink or blue etc. depending on the test you used). Only the HCG can combine with the pregnancy-assay molecules and bring about a colour-change. So if the line is coloured – no matter how faint the line is – then HCG made the line change colour – nothing else! However, just like the wet tissue-paper we talked about earlier, if the area is simply wet with urine, the pregnancy strip may possibly turn a little 'grey' – like a 'shadowy' colour; but if there is no pink or blue colour, then no HCG has been detected. However, remember that the area of the test-stick that you 'wee' on is made of a very dense material, and urine will be absorbed by this dense material and will travel along the test-stick by 'passive-diffusion'. And liquids like to move from an area of their high concentration – to an area of their low concentration, so, because the test-stick is sealed and dry, the urine will travel along it – to it's other end – and may 'drip-out' inside the sealed area of the stick (the bit after the test and control areas that you cannot see). So the urine will keep moving until the end that you 'wee'd' on has no more urine to offer! Then the 'concentration gradient' ceases and the 'diffusion' will stop. And in most cases, test-sticks – especially those with caps on – can stay wet for days! So if you go back to the stick an hour, or two, or three or four hours etc after the test; and the 'pregnancy' strip has chang

  •  Cont ....changed colour (pink or blue depending on the test etc), then, whilst the urine has spent several hours travelling up the stick from one end to it's other – and 'dripping out at the other end – the urine has been passing over the 'pregnancy' area all the while. Therefore, even if the HCG levels are virtually undetectable (but present in minute quantities), as the urine travels over the pregnancy-assay, the HCG will still be attracted-to (remember the 'chemotaxis' we talked about earlier) and will bind with the molecules in the pregnancy-assay – hence a positive coloured line showing up to several hours after the test was done. Like I said, no other molecule or hormone will make the pregnancy-assay change colour – except HCG. So, if after an hour, or several hours, you have a coloured line in any way, then HCG has been detected – and HCG can only be found in your urine if an egg has been fertilised. So let's not have any more if this 'evaporation line' confusion. If it's slightly grey or remains white – however long after the test you look - then no HCG is present. But if it 's coloured – then HCG is present – in whatever concentration – because only HCG can bring about the colouration of pink/blue, depending on the test you are using. And finally, some tests don't dry out for days – sometimes many days (especially those that you put the caps back on) - so the water-content of the urea has not even evaporated – yet people still go on about 'evaporation lines' – which, in my opinion, is nonsense. And for the record, my Wife's test had a coloured line several hours after we did the test – and I knew she was pregnant – despite the articles I read on the internet about evaporation lines. And indeed, the next tests proved that she was. I am critically aware of the intense emotions involved when people are hoping or trying to become pregnant - and I hate to think of the emotional heartache and anxieties that these mixed or uncertain test-results can cause - hence the reason for taking the time to write this short article. I hope it helps, and feedback - whether positive or otherwise - is always useful. Take care - and lots of baby-dust - to all prospective Mums-n-Dads

     

     

  • Well said that man!
  • well said, just one short question for the ladies of this site trying to concieve, how many days since lmp (not suspected or confirmed ovulation) can a hpt be expected to become positive? just i see a LOT of posts on here about how many days past ovulation or after sex or after this that or the other should a hpt give a positive result if conception has taken place. i am currently 31 weeks pregnant so doesn't really apply to me just thought it may be useful to ladies ttc. 

    image

  • What a brilliant article from Roy. Some of the best explanations which I have come across on the net. There is so much about evaportaion lines so it's great to come across some literature which explains things in detail. Thank you so much!
  • Thanks for the write up, very useful information!! image

  • Hi, 

    I've just done a pregnancy test. It was one of the strip style ones which you actually dip into urine rather than peeing on it. 

    I completed 3 tests. the first came back with a blue line but the line was not in the test area it was underneath where the max strip of plastic is. If I hadn't peeled back the top layer of plastic then I woudn't have seen it. Is this a postive result or an error? 

    The second two tests were negative. 

    I'm so confused as there is a blue line clearly there but not in the right place! 

     

  • Laura, I'd do another one. Sounds like an error to me. Is the blue line on the other two tests or just the one? X

  • I've just done two tests one has come up very faint and the other one was negative so very confused
  • hello my name is nikita..i took a pt about a week and a half ago and it tooj a while for anything ti appear but when it did a negitive line appeared first then to the left if the test where the positive line would have shown the area was all pink but not a clear line..any idea what that might mean? plz help..

     

  • could have been early testing, id test again now if u have waited a week and half lines should be clearer x good luck x

  • Thanks Roy! He is very helpful. I read his comments when I saw a faintest pink line after one hour of my negative test. Not only faint, it's thinnest, looks nothing like positive result, just touching the beginning of a thick pregnancy line on 12 DPO. The only thing I notice is not grey in color so from he I realize i have a chance. Second interested thing happened is my doctor told me my uterus lining was too thin, 3.5-3.8 at week 3 (when we did an ultrasound because my first lining check was 3.8 and he already freaked me out) so he commented I have very low chance (5%) of getting pregnant this month. I wanted to say the uterus lining is meant to be thin at 4mm after period and at week 3, you may or may not see your thin uterus lining due to an early pregnancy. I was from worrying infertile and realized I'm pregnant in a week. Im a google freak, i check the temperature everyday and i got big variation (35C-36.6C over the whole week) Don't worry women ttc outside, trust your body, I had sore breast more intense than normal pms, once again thanks Roy and the God giving me hope. I tested again the day i missed my period it shows a light positive today.
  • The membership sign in section got me so frustrated finally done
  • Hey i have taken one about an hour ago and i left it for twnety five minutes and came back to a very positive looking line. I have no idea what to think we are trying to have a baby and ive had spotting and no period. Is it an evap line of its so pink even after the time fram
Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions