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Pregnancy Testing
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A pregnancy test is a test to determine whether or not a woman is pregnant.
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False positive/negative tests
False negative readings (from home kits) can result in early testing when the concentration of the hCG in the woman's urine is below the threshold of detection by the test. This can occur before the 5th week of pregnancy (defined as 5 weeks from the last menstrual period) - beta hCG levels rise exponentially in the first two months or so of pregnancy so the earlier the test is performed, the higher the chance of a false negative result. A blood test usually detects hCG 2 weeks after ovulation.
False positive results can result from rare beta-hCG producing tumors like choriocarcinomas. Also, most tests show a positive or unclear result after 10 to 20 minutes, independent of an actual pregnancy.
Some individuals react to some substrate in the test and thus will display a consistent low positive pregnancy test even though they are not pregnant. This phantom hCG may lead to serious misdiagnosis and intervention, but can be detected with serial dilutions.
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Where can I get a Pregnancy Test?
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