Drinking too much water — or any liquid — can affect a pregnancy test. The hormone hCG is more concentrated in your urine first thing in the morning. If you haven't missed your period yet, your hCG level may not be high enough to be detected in more diluted urine.
Use First-Morning Urine
This makes it more likely to get an accurate test reading. 1 If you're worried you'll forget to collect it when you first get up, close the lid to your toilet and set the pregnancy test on top. Some say that if you hold your urine for more than four hours it is the same as first-morning urine.
Take the pregnancy test first thing in the morning before you drink any fluids. Coffee's going to have to wait a second! Levels of hCG will be strongest with first morning urine — more concentrated urine guarantees a more accurate test.
Should I dip my home pregnancy test in urine, or pee on it? Most tests allow you to either place the absorbent tip in your urine stream for (usually) five seconds or dip the tip in a collected urine sample for five to 20 seconds. Accuracy is not dependent on the method as long as you follow the instructions.
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.
However, you don't need to stress too much about taking a pregnancy test at a specific time of day. Using urine later on when it's less concentrated may only “hypothetically delay a positive result by only 12 to 24 hours,” advises Dr. Flanagan.
"If you can't take a test in the morning, try to use urine that has been sitting in your bladder for around four hours. Drinking lots of fluids can dilute your urine and lower the concentration of hCG, so it's best to avoid drinking too much water or other drinks before taking a pregnancy test.
Home pregnancy tests are done on the urine, but can differ in how early they will detect a pregnancy. In many cases, you can get a positive result from a home test 10 days after conception. For a more accurate result, it is best to wait until after you have missed your period to take a test.
The first morning urine is the urine you void when you get up for the day. If you get up during the night, it is not necessary to catch that urine. You can wait until you get up for the day. For women who work night shift, your first morning urine will be the urine you void after you slept during the day.
Though it is now known clearly some chemical reaction takes place when you pee on the strip which contains hCG antibodies in the strip. Once this chemical reaction has taken place, it cannot occur again. It is best to dip in the urine once and discard it.
It is possible to get a false negative on a pregnancy test (where the test says you're not pregnant, even though you are), particularly if you've tested before your period is due. If you've just had one negative result, you could try waiting for a few days and testing again, just to be sure.
When possible, try to wait until it's been three hours since your last pee before you take the test. You could also take two pregnancy tests to confirm you get the same result.
Your urine isn't concentrated enough
That's because as you drink your morning coffee or tea, bottle of water, etc., you lower the concentration of hCG in your urine. And if your amount of hCG is low to begin with (because, say, it's early in the pregnancy), you might end up with a false negative pregnancy test result.
Week 4 of pregnancy
For example, a fertilised egg may have implanted in your womb just 2 weeks ago, but if the first day of your last period was 4 weeks ago, this means you're officially four weeks pregnant! Pregnancy normally lasts from 37 weeks to 42 weeks from the first day of your last period.
Getting your period a week after a positive pregnancy test can be confusing and frightening, but it's actually much more common than you might realize. You may have experienced what's often referred to as a chemical pregnancy. Many women who have a chemical pregnancy actually don't even realize they've conceived.
Test too early and the amount of hCG in your urine isn't detectable. As many as 9 out of 15 women will get a false negative until seven or eight weeks of pregnancy.
Know this: All Clearblue® pregnancy tests are over 99% accurate from the day you expect your period. False positives very rarely occur, and are often due to medical conditions or certain medications. False negatives, while more common, typically occur due to testing too early or drinking too much liquid before testing.
Home pregnancy tests can be up to 99% accurate. However, in some instances, they may produce a false-positive result. Incorrect test usage, previous abortions and miscarriages, and some medications may lead to a false-positive pregnancy test result. People should always see their doctor after a positive pregnancy test.
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. You also may no longer be pregnant.
Most pregnancy tests include instructions that encourage you to wait at least one week between a negative test and taking another pregnancy test. This is to allow time for your body to build up enough hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) to be detected in your urine.