Causes of false positive pregnancy test results

Many women usually have early pregnancy test strips, which are used to detect whether women are pregnant. Generally speaking, the results of early pregnancy test strips are relatively accurate, but there may be unexpected situations. For example, some people are falsely pregnant, but after using the test strips, they obviously have the symptoms of pregnancy, but in fact they are not pregnant. This is generally called a false positive. What causes this?

Causes of false positive pregnancy test results

After a woman becomes pregnant, the placenta secretes human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), which can be detected in the urine. There is almost no HCG in the urine of non-pregnant women. Early pregnancy test paper is to determine whether you are pregnant by detecting the value of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) in urine.

In general, there are two types of results for early pregnancy test strips: drop urine into the detection hole on the test strip. If a colored band appears in the control area of ​​the test strip (some test strips appear red, some test strips appear blue), it indicates a negative result, indicating that you are not pregnant; conversely, if a clear colored band appears in the detection area, it indicates a positive result, indicating that you are pregnant. This test has the advantages of being rapid, convenient, sensitive and highly specific. Early pregnancy test strips can only be used as a preliminary screening test. Do not rely on them too much, because early pregnancy test strips may result in false positives or false negatives.

Why is the early pregnancy test false positive?

This situation may also be a false pregnancy. Physiologists believe that false pregnancy is a combined physiological and psychological "deficit". After getting married, some women, eager to have children, often compare themselves with their sisters who got married at the same time, and become envious and anxious when they see others getting pregnant. When you think about it day and night or dream about it, a strong "anticipation" excitation focus will form in the cerebral cortex, affecting the dysfunction of the hypothalamus and pituitary gland, and eventually leading to amenorrhea.

After menopause, under the influence of sex hormones in the body, fat will accumulate in the lower abdomen. Under the influence of the psychological factor of their desire to get pregnant, they believe that they are pregnant, and thus have corresponding "pregnancy" reactions such as anorexia, picky eating and vomiting. For some women, under the psychological effect of "simulated pregnancy", the ratio of estrogen and androgen in their bodies will be unbalanced, and they may even develop butterfly spots on their rosy cheeks and feel "fetal movement" in their abdomen. This is purely a psychological effect.

Generally speaking, if women do self-tests for pregnancy at home, without any external guidance, the test results are generally only 51% to 76% accurate. A false positive pregnancy test may be caused by nervousness or other factors. If the test is done in a laboratory in the presence of a doctor who ensures that the test strips are working properly and the woman uses the test strips exactly as directed, the test accuracy may be close to 99.9%.

When using early pregnancy test strips for testing, the method of use must be accurate. Before going to the bathroom for specific operations, you must carefully read the instructions for use of the test card and carefully follow the instructions for the early pregnancy test strips. Otherwise, false positives may easily occur, leading to inaccurate results.

Although early pregnancy test strips can provide some help to women, be careful not to blindly believe that they will give you the final answer. If you do it yourself, the results may not be very accurate due to improper testing timing and methods. The results of early pregnancy test strips are not 100% accurate. To know accurately whether you are pregnant, you should go to a professional hospital for an HCG urine test or blood test to accurately determine whether you are pregnant.