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.
Unfortunately, it is possible to have a faint positive, only to get a negative when you retest a few days later.
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.
Drinking a lot of liquid before testing can leave you with a faint positive line, or if you're testing early, even a negative result. It may be easy to think a faint line is a false positive, but it's very, very rare to get a false positive result.
For the line tests, sometimes, a faint-colored second line appears. This may represent an early pregnancy or may simply be an evaporation line. If you read the test after the recommended time in the instructions, the results might be a false-positive since the evaporation line may show up more clearly.
If you have a typical 28-day menstrual cycle, hCG may be detectable in your urine 12 to 15 days after ovulation if you're pregnant. The levels of hCG are very low at first and then they rise quickly, usually doubling every three days in early pregnancy.
You may feel disappointed when getting a positive test result and then negative, but a negative result does not necessarily mean that you are not pregnant. The result could just be a false negative result or you may not use the test kit properly.
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 get a faint positive pregnancy test, you are almost always pregnant, but it may be too early to celebrate. Home pregnancy tests differ in their ability to detect a pregnancy in women who have recently missed a period, either because of a chemical pregnancy or other reason.
While it can be difficult to know whether you've experienced a chemical pregnancy, signs include: Experiencing a heavier, more intense period with more intense cramping about a week later than usual. Having a positive pregnancy test then getting your period.
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.
Many women who have a chemical pregnancy don't realize they're pregnant. The loss happens so early on, there might not be any symptoms. But you might experience a late period, cramps, and heavy period-like bleeding that sometimes includes clotting.
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.
You're Pregnant—But There's Not Enough hCG in Your Urine Yet
A faint line could very well indicate that the urine used for the sample is pretty diluted, or that it's very early in the pregnancy—there is just enough hCG to turn the test positive, says Woeber.
The good news for prospective testers is that the chances of a false positive pregnancy test are very low. So just how common are false positive pregnancy tests then? “False positive pregnancy tests are rare and occur less than 1 percent of the time,” confirms DuMontier.
The easiest way to differentiate between a positive test result and evaporation line is to check your test within the allotted time. A true positive will appear within two to 10 minutes, while urine won't dry and form streaks until some time later.
In general, the best time is when you have your first morning pee. However, some pregnancy tests are sensitive enough to detect HCG no matter what time of day you take the test.
Clearblue Early Detection Pregnancy Test provides early detection of the pregnancy hormone. 71% of pregnancies can be detected 6 days before the missed period (5 days before the expected period) and 94% of pregnancies can be detected 5 days before the missed period (4 days before the expected period).
Since urine is more concentrated in the morning, a test taken then is more likely to produce a positive result than one taken later in the day. Still, most urine tests will be positive by one to two days after a missed period.
One pink line and one line lighter than the other in the pregnancy test result window means you are pregnant. Any positive test result (even a very faint line) shows that the pregnancy hormone (hcg) was detected.
A chemical pregnancy is a pregnancy loss that happens before the fifth week. Testing positive on a pregnancy test only to get a negative result a few weeks later can signal a chemical pregnancy. Most people who experience them go on to have healthy pregnancies.
In these instances, following hCG levels can be useful. After a miscarriage, hCG levels should drop, on average, about 50% every 48 hours. The vast majority will see their hCG levels drop by 50% within seven days.