A very faint line on a pregnancy test usually means that implantation has occurred and you're in the early stages of pregnancy. But you'll want to test again a few days or weeks later to see if that line has become thicker and darker, meaning your pregnancy is progressing — and you can safely start getting excited!
The enzyme on the mobile antibodies triggers a colour change in dye molecules on the test strip. This line only appears if the urine contains hCG – and hence, if the woman is pregnant. If there's no hCG, the mobile antibodies just sail on past.
For your result to be 'Pregnant' (positive) there must be a blue line in the control window and a '+' symbol in the result window within 10 minutes of testing. It does not matter if one of the lines that make up the '+' symbol is lighter or darker than the other; the result is 'Pregnant'.
For the most part, pregnancy tests don't get darker as they go along. “These tests are designed to be read usually within 10 minutes of you doing the test,” says Dr. Demosthenes.
So, if you do get a faint line, Kirkham recommends waiting two or three days, then testing again. If it's still faint, she suggests going to your family doctor for a blood test, which can measure the specific amount of beta hCG, to check if the pregnancy is progressing as it should.
Any positive line, no matter how faint, means your result is pregnant. Levels of hCG in your body will increase over the course of your pregnancy. If you test early, your hCG levels may be still be low and you'll see a faint positive line.
An evaporation line (or evap line) typically appears like a faded streak, while a faint positive test result looks like a lighter blue or pink line, depending on the test dye color. This article provides an overview of home pregnancy test results.
Can Too Much Pee on a Pregnancy Test Make It Negative? Urinating too much on a urine pregnancy test should not cause a false negative result. But diluted urine, or urine with a higher water content, can impact a pregnancy test by skewing results.
Can a barely visible pregnancy test result be negative? A barely visible pregnancy test result usually can't be negative — because it detected hCG — but it might indicate a false positive or an early pregnancy loss. However, false positive results that are not related to early pregnancy loss are incredibly rare.
The strength of the positive test line depends on how much hCG is in your urine. If the line is faint, it usually means that the hCG level is low. One reason why hCG levels may be low could be because you're still very early into your pregnancy.
Blue-dye tests are notorious for getting a blue-dye evaporation line. It's unclear if they actually have more evaporation lines, or if they are more likely to be confused for an actual line since a gray-ish evaporation line looks very similar to a blue positive line.
Pink Dye Pregnancy Tests
These pregnancy tests work when a chemical reaction causes a line to appear when a certain amount of hCG is present. Pink dye tests are considered a superior option to blue dye to most mamas because they do not show evaporation lines (which can be misread as a false positive).
The enzymes are also attached to dye-activating molecules. In the test zone, more enzymes are present, and they, too attach to the HCG. This frees the dye-activating molecules to go and, well, activate the dye. Which then tells you that, since there are HCG molecules present, you're pregnant.
A mark on a pregnancy test may be an evaporation line if: More than 10 minutes have passed since taking the test. The mark is faint and colorless, and it resembles a water spot.
If you saw a faint positive result and retested in a few days with a negative result (or you got your period after testing positive), you may have experienced a chemical pregnancy or early miscarriage. A chemical pregnancy means the egg was fertilized but didn't completely implant.
This usually ranges between a couple of minutes up until 10 minutes later. If you see a positive result beyond this time frame, you may be left second-guessing the results. However, always remember that a pregnancy test result is only accurate within 10 minutes.
HCG is at its highest level in the morning when urine is fresh and not diluted by the liquid you drink during the day. If you test in the afternoon, your urine may not have enough HCG to detect.
If you had a true evaporation line, future tests will show a negative result. On the other hand, if your test showed a faint line, you should continue to see the line darkening with each day that progresses.
So, if you see a faint line on your home pregnancy test, this simply means that the hCG hormone level in your urine is low, and you want to try again in the morning when it's more concentrated or levels have risen.
Usually the tests recommend waiting about 3 minutes before reading it. If you let the test sit too long the the test may show a false positive result. A false positive is when the tests shows you are pregnant when you actually are not.
In general, yes, pregnancy test results should get darker early on as a pregnancy progresses. This is because the pregnancy hormone, hCG, typically doubles every two to three days during the first few weeks of pregnancy. After six weeks, the levels will double about every four days.