If you think you are pregnant, and you want to confirm it, the normal thing is that you resort to a pregnancy test. Almost always what we usually choose is to compare these tests in the pharmacy, which are very easy to do at home with a urine sample. Most of these pregnancy tests claim to be 99% effective, but there is that 1%. And is that they are not infallible And there are factors that can cause both the false false positive and the false negative.
In this article we will explain what is a false positive, and what are the most common causes for this to occur.
What is a false positive and how do pregnancy tests work?
Pregnancy tests work detecting the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is usually only present in a woman's body if she is pregnant. If you test positive for pregnancy, it almost certainly means that you are pregnant or have been.
To get a true false positive, something that is quite rare, it only happens if you have hCG in your body for a reason other than being pregnant. These reasons may be because you have recently been pregnant, if you are taking fertility drugs with hCG, or because of a medical condition such as some rare ovarian cysts. A pregnancy test too can give you a false positive if you have a chemical pregnancy, an early miscarriage, a ectopic pregnancy or a molar pregnancy, but this is not exactly considered a false positive.
Can be given also a false negative. This is that even though you are pregnant, your hCG levels are still too low for the test to detect.
Reading error due to evaporation in urine
When you do a home pregnancy test it is very important that follow the instructions to the letter. If you have changed the test brand, read those of this new brand, because each one has its instructions.
Almost all pregnancy tests ask you to read the results within 4-5 minutes after its completion. Don't take more than 10 minutes, and never make it to 30. This is very important because most non-digital urine pregnancy tests give one line if you are not pregnant and two lines if you are pregnant, or else a positive sign appears. or negative. But if the pregnancy test reads long after recommended time, it may happen that another line appears due to the evaporation of urine.
So, you may interpret a false positive. This second line that appears is not proof that you are pregnant, but rather a evaporation line that leaves the urine after the recommended time to read the test.
False positive for medications or certain diseases
Some medications affect at the time of obtaining the results in the pregnancy tests. As we have said, the level of the hCG hormone is measured, therefore, drugs that include this hormone as an active ingredient are usually those used to treat infertility, will alter the measurements. It can give you a false positive when you are not yet pregnant.
There are also any diseases and medical conditions that can increase a woman's hCG, even if you are not pregnant. They are disorders that affect pituitary gland and hormone levels, We are talking about perimenopausal or menopausal women; Gestational trophoblastic diseases, cancers of the ovary, bladder, kidney, liver, lung, colon, breast and stomach.
Other reasons for false positives include molar pregnanciesThis is when a sperm fertilizes an empty egg; a recent pregnancy, with birth or with natural or induced abortion. They are actually real positive pregnancy results even if it does not continue. Another reason is ectopic pregnancies, something quite rare.
So do not be alarmed by all this, because we repeat it again, the most common thing is that if the pregnancy test has given you positive, and you have done well, it is that you are pregnant.