Home pregnancy tests are generally pretty accurate. In fact, studies suggest that home pregnancy tests are around 97% accurate when used in the way that the instructions indicate. However, there are some times when you might get an incorrect reading on your home pregnancy test. Generally, this will take the form of a false positive. This means that the test says that you are pregnant when you actually are not pregnant.

There are other things that can cause a home pregnancy test to indicate pregnancy when you are not actually pregnant. In some cases, you might have a chemical pregnancy. You might be experiencing evaporation lines, or drugs that you use for fertility may interfere with your test.

A chemical pregnancy is, essentially, a very early miscarriage. Some studies have suggested that as many as half of all first pregnancies end in miscarriage, and this often happens in the first few weeks of pregnancy. In this situation, without a home pregnancy test, the mom-to-be would never have known she was pregnant to begin with.

Evaporation lines are created on a pregnancy test as the urine stream crosses the test. The urine on the test sometimes evaporates, and leaves a mark on the test results area. This typically shows up as a faint, grey or even colorless line in the test area. It is easy to mistake this line as a positive result when you may not actually be pregnant. No particular brand of home pregnancy test is immune to evaporation lines, although some home pregnancy tests may be better than others at avoiding these.

Finally, the use of some medications, especially fertility medications, have the pregnancy hormone hCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin). This is the hormone measured by a home pregnancy test, and such medications could affect the accuracy of a home pregnancy test. Some of the fertility medications that could give a false positive might include Profasi, Pregnyl, and Novarel, but only if the test is taken within one to two weeks of getting the shot.

Posted in Trying to Get Pregnant

Related Articles:

• Can Ovarian Cysts Cause a False Positive on a Pregnancy Test?
• How Accurate are Pregnancy Tests & Can I Get a False Positive?
• What Home Pregnancy Test Should I Use for Most Accurate Results?
• Can Taking Birth Control Affect a Pregnancy Test?
• Are There Certain Medications That Can Interfere With Pregnancy Tests?
• What is an evaporation line in reference to pregnancy tests?
• Is It Possible To Have A Positive Ovulation Test But Not Ovulate?
• Why did the pregnancy test show a positive, but I got my period anyway?
• HCG Levels During the First Trimester
• Knowing When to Take a Pregnancy Test