False Positive Or False Negative?

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you’re late? I’m pregnant, right? You start to feel very nervous and excited. What follows is to take the pregnancy test and when you do it, the result is negative. But how?. Although pharmacy pregnancy tests are reliable, they are not foolproof. What is a false positive and a false negative? Stay, I’ll tell you here.

FALSE POSITIVE

When the woman becomes pregnant, the ovum has been fertilized and your body begins to produce a hormone called HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) responsible for protecting the embryo from the maternal immune system and which will also stop your menstruation. When you take the pregnancy test, what you actually do is measure the amount of that HCG hormone in your urine. The highest concentration occurs from day nine after the ovum has been fertilized.

• After a cesarean section, abortion or childbirth.
  In these cases, HCG hormone levels are higher than in subsequent weeks. Therefore, the pregnancy test in the urine will detect it as a false positive.
  
  
• Another case would be that the woman has ovarian cysts, kidney failure or specific disorders that affect hormonal levels. An example would be menopause.
  
  

There are medications that also contain this hormone, such as those used for fertility treatments.
In case they present abdominal pain, your menstruation does not return or you have other symptoms, you should go immediately to your specialist doctor.

FALSE NEGATIVE

If there are cases where the woman is really pregnant but the test says otherwise. They are not frequent cases, or common but they do exist. If the test tells you no but you feel that it does, it will be better to go to the obstetrician for a correct diagnosis and take the necessary care.

• The test has been done ahead of time.
  This could be a reason for a false negative test. If the woman is pregnant but is tested early, she may get this result.
  
  
• The test was not successful.
  It is rare but if it happens that the test, sometimes, is not carried out correctly and is a false negative.

It will always be advisable to see a specialist when you suspect that a new member is coming. This way we clear your doubts completely and you will be able to take the care that both of you need, the baby and you.