can you have a positive pregnancy test and still not be pregnant?
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It's possible to have a positive pregnancy test even if you aren't technically pregnant. This is called a false positive. It's sometimes caused by a chemical pregnancy. A chemical pregnancy occurs if a fertilized egg, known as the embryo, is unable to implant, or grow, very early on.
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Cue: panicked visit to your ob/gyn, only to learn that you're actually not pregnant and had nothing to stress about. Thankfully, false-positive pregnancy tests are rare, but they can happen. Here are some of the most common causes of a false-positive pregnancy test.
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1 Pregnancy tests can be negative However, in some rare cases, you may be pregnant, but not have enough HCG in your system – which means you won't get a positive reading.
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A false-positive result indicates a pregnancy even though there isn't one. Rarely, the test may detect abnormal, non-pregnancy tissue, which requires follow-up by a doctor. These results are rare because usually only pregnant women produce the hCG hormone. There's a higher risk of getting a false-negative result.
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You can get a negative result on your pregnancy test for two reasons: You are not pregnant or you are pregnant, but you tested too early for the pregnancy test you used to pick up the hCG 'pregnancy' hormone in your body.
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These tests are almost 99 percent accurate . In most cases, a negative result means that you aren't pregnant.
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A positive result—even a faint line—on a pregnancy test means you're almost certainly pregnant. False positive results are incredibly rare, and only happen if you have recently been pregnant, you're on fertility medications containing hCG, or you have a rare medical condition that causes hCG to be present.
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If the test result is negative, you may not be pregnant. However, negative results are less reliable. For example, if you do a pregnancy test too early, you could be pregnant, but there may not be enough HCG in your body to give a positive test result.
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And if the OPK is negative, you could still be pregnant. Only a positive pregnancy test tells you that you are pregnant, and if the pregnancy test is positive that's a nearly 100% confirmation you are pregnant.
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A test performed several days before an expected period can show a positive result, but the woman still gets her period soon or on time. Rarely, certain tumors can produce hCG, causing a pregnancy test to be positive even when we know a woman is not pregnant.
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False negative pregnancy tests do occur. In fact, it is possible to have a negative result on a pregnancy test and actually be pregnant.
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Your hCG levels will slowly start to fall naturally, but a pregnancy test, may detect residual hCG levels and give a positive result, even though you're no longer pregnant. If you continue to see a positive result on pregnancy tests and are concerned, see your doctor.
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A "Phantom hCG" causes a positive blood pregnancy test without being pregnant. Patients with a phantom hCG will have a persistently yet not significantly rising positive blood pregnancy test while the urine test is negative.
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Remember though, taking a pregnancy test at night could lead to inaccurate results. If you take a pregnancy test at night and get a positive result, then you are most likely pregnant. However, if the result is negative, it's possible you might not be pregnant.
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"Some women can get a positive pregnancy test and then three days after their period is due, they have a really heavy period," says Lanalee Araba Sam, M.D., an ob-gyn in Fort Lauderdale. "Really what they've had is an early miscarriage called a chemical pregnancy, and a lot of people call that a false positive.
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A pregnancy test works by detecting the hCG hormone, which is usually only present in your body if you're pregnant. A positive pregnancy test result will mean you are almost certainly pregnant. Getting a true false positive – when you were never pregnant in the first place – is incredibly rare.
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A pregnancy test will not turn positive until there is a high enough hCG level in your urine. ... So even if you are one of the 0.5% of women with implantation at 6 DPO, you still probably would not get a positive pregnancy test until 7 or 8 DPO.