Positive pregnancy test: what next? One test is positive, the other is negative, which one to believe.

My hands are shaking, my head is foggy, there is an incomprehensible mix of emotions inside, and the reason for everything is a positive pregnancy test. Some women rejoice at it as if it were a miracle, others begin to panic, and others completely fall into a stupor. But within a few minutes/hours/days everyone has the same question - what next?

1. Calm down

It is better not to neglect this advice. Very often, women who really want or, conversely, are afraid to get pregnant, “think out” a second stripe. In any case, pulling yourself together will be an excellent decision.

You don’t have to try to be distracted by something else - it won’t work. Instead, deep, calm breathing or talking with your spouse will help.

2. Recheck the result

As soon as the ability to think clearly returns, it is advisable to begin rechecking the result. To do this, it is better to buy 2-3 tests, but of a different brand and type. Ideally, at another pharmacy. Reading the instructions for them is a must. Tests may show false positive results due to improper use, storage or expired use.

A false positive result also occurs in the following cases:

• recent abortion, miscarriage;
• ectopic pregnancy;
• ingress of organic particles into the test from the outside;
• treatment with hormonal drugs;
• menopause;
• oncology;
• some types of cysts, uterine fibroids and similar diseases.

You can repeat the procedure after 2-3 days if in doubt. If you are pregnant, the stripes will become brighter after this period. If the tests still show pregnancy, it’s time to move on to the third step.

3. Chat with mom

And not only for moral support and sharing joy. A conversation with your mother is needed to find out how her pregnancy and childbirth went. This information will subsequently help the doctor better understand how to manage the pregnancy of the expectant mother. A few questions to ask your parent:

• What weight and height was I born with?
• Were there any complications during pregnancy or childbirth?
• Did you suffer from high blood pressure during pregnancy?
• What childhood diseases did I have (rubella, chickenpox, etc.)?

It also makes sense to remember all your chronic or serious illnesses in the past, and the presence of allergies. Perhaps mom can help with this too.

4. Make an appointment with a doctor

A logical and obvious step. However, as practice shows, many women postpone visiting the doctor or do not consider it necessary to go to the clinic at all. And in vain. The sooner the expectant mother makes an appointment, the greater the doctor’s chances of preventing the development of pathologies in the fetus or complications during pregnancy.

If the test shows two lines not due to pregnancy or a defective product, the doctor will determine the cause and prescribe the appropriate treatment.

What can a doctor do during the first visits?

4.1. Send for a laboratory test for hCG

If the period is still short, even a gynecological examination may not reveal pregnancy. But a gonadotropin test will do an excellent job of this. There is much more of it in the blood than in the urine. If the pharmacy test shows an incorrect result, the laboratory test will reveal this.

4.2. Carry out diagnostics

The doctor may order several blood tests, urine tests, and a thyroid examination. He will probably recommend a general examination by a therapist, ophthalmologist, otolaryngologist and several other specialists.

You will have to take tests frequently during pregnancy, almost before every visit to the gynecologist. However, it is best not to skip them as they are really important for maintaining a healthy pregnancy. All procedures are aimed not only at monitoring the condition of the child, but also at caring for the well-being of the mother.

Low hemoglobin levels, weak immunity, too strong hormonal fluctuations and discomfort in general - for all this, a gynecologist can prescribe vitamins. They will improve a woman's health and even make her more attractive.

4.4. Schedule an ultrasound

The first ultrasound will be scheduled no earlier than 2 weeks after the start of the delay. Its main goal is to exclude ectopic pregnancy. It will also be able to identify problems with the genitals, if any.

An ultrasound to determine the sex of the child and the characteristics of its development will be prescribed much later.

4.5. Agree on a visit schedule

You will have to see the doctor almost more often than your husband. If the pregnancy proceeds without complications, then the frequency of visits will most likely be equal to one visit per month, but not less often. Closer to the due date, a woman will have to visit the gynecologist even more often.

To avoid having to cancel plans later and rush to see a doctor, it is advisable to immediately discuss an approximate schedule of visits with the doctor.

5. Stock up on information

Books, reliable online sources, courses for pregnant women - all this will definitely come in handy. A woman who knows how her body and child changes during pregnancy feels more confident. And confidence and calmness make childbirth easier.

What is definitely better not to do is listen to adherents of traditional medicine with dubious and often dangerous advice. These 9 months are not the best period for experiments.

6. Enjoy your pregnancy

Almost every pregnancy is accompanied by discomfort. This is natural and quite tolerable. However, it is still better to try to provide yourself with the most comfortable environment possible.

Communication with pleasant people, visiting beautiful places, positive emotions have a good effect on the baby’s nervous system and his health in general. And mom will only benefit from this.

And yet there is a “but”. Pregnancy is not the best time for drastic changes. Therefore, if a young mother:

• smokes, she can't quit this habit sharp. Better gradually reduce the number of cigarettes and then smoothly refuse them;
• lives according to a disrupted schedule, she'll have to try slowly restore it. It makes sense to ask the future dad about this;
, it is recommended to exclude strength and intense training. You can replace them with simple walks or yoga for pregnant women;
• loves fast food, it is advisable to reduce its amount. A woman’s tastes can change greatly, which often provokes cravings for junk food. You shouldn’t completely deny yourself pleasure, but seriously limiting the amount of such food is necessary. It is important to ensure that the main diet consists of mainly from healthy dishes.
• active personality who will not sit still, she may leave her old way of life. But she will definitely have to monitor her daily schedule and nutrition, and eliminate negativity and overwork.

A positive pregnancy test can be either the result of a defective product or an omen of motherhood. Regardless of this, it is better to play it safe and still visit the doctor's office. This step will help protect your health and that of your baby.

Error test on pregnancy. The test is the first signal of our pregnancy. Some look with anticipation, and some look with caution at the stripes that barely appear on the test

All rapid tests, regardless of price and method of operation, are based on one principle - they determine the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in the urine. This is a hormone that begins to be produced in the female body 7-10 days after the fertilized egg begins to develop. It is believed that when pregnancy occurs, hCG can be detected already in the first days of a delayed menstrual cycle.
The tests contain special substances that detect the hormone and react to it by changing the color on the strip or by appearing on the screen of the electronic device: pregnon or non pregnon (“pregnant” or “not pregnant”).

Why can a negative answer be false?

If the concentration of gonadotropin is insufficient, the test result may be false negative. This can happen when conception occurred shortly before the start of menstruation, and hCG has not yet had time to accumulate in perceptible quantities. By the way, if the period is more than 12 weeks, the rapid test will also be useless: hCG ceases to be produced.

The test can be false negative in case of ectopic pregnancy and threat of miscarriage. With excessive fluid intake, the concentration of hCG in the urine may also decrease, which means the test result may be unreliable. Therefore, before the test, experts advise not to drink a lot of fluids and not to use diuretics. This is especially important in the short term, when a woman does the test in the first days after the delay. And it is best to determine the hormone level in the morning.

– Some tests say that the time of day at which it is carried out does not matter; as a rule, such tests are positioned as highly sensitive. But no matter what the instructions say, a few days after the delay, I would still recommend doing the test in the morning, since a noticeable amount of hCG appears in the urine throughout the day around the third week of embryo development.

Why can a positive answer be false?

In addition to false negative results, rapid pregnancy tests can also show false positive ones. This happens when taking drugs containing hCG, for example, ovulation-stimulating drugs Pregnil and Profazi. After completing a course of treatment with these medications, high hCG levels may persist for up to two weeks. Therefore, you will have to wait with the test for this period. After miscarriages, abortions, or removal of an ectopic pregnancy, the hormone does not disappear immediately - it still remains in the body for some time, and tests can give false positive answers.

The test can also show pregnancy where there is none in various tumor processes.

How to avoid mistakes

In addition, rapid tests can show false results, both positive and negative, for “technical” reasons.

The test may be of poor quality or expired. Therefore, it is always necessary to check the expiration date, the tightness of the packaging and do not hesitate to ask for a certificate. You can only use a well-packaged device and print it before direct use. Violation of storage conditions can also be misleading. To be sure that tests are stored correctly, it is better to buy them at a pharmacy.

Failure to follow the test instructions and using stale urine can also change the result. But it happens much more often that one day the test is positive, and after some time it becomes negative. But this is not a mistake. This happens when the pregnancy stops at a very short stage and a miscarriage occurs. Usually a woman does not notice it: everything happens like normal menstruation, only with a slight delay.

Three types of tests - three degrees of accuracy

There are three groups of rapid tests: test strips, tablet and inkjet. The most popular of them are test strips. The principle of operation is simple: you need to dip the test strip in a small amount of urine and after 5-10 minutes the answer will be known. If the second strip is colored, the test is positive; if the second strip is not colored, the test is negative. It happens that the second strip changes color barely noticeably; such a result is considered weakly positive. And gynecologists advise repeating the test after three days. Test strips are the cheapest, but also less “true” than others. The inaccuracy of the results is due to the fact that the strip can be underexposed or overexposed.

Tablet tests are slightly more expensive, but the quality of their results is considered to be higher. The test consists of two windows: in the first you need to drop a few drops of urine with a pipette, and in the second the answer will appear after a while.

For jet tests, there is no need to collect urine separately - just place the device under a stream of urine, as indicated in the instructions. After a few minutes, the result will appear on the display. Inkjet tests are considered the most expensive, but also the most sensitive - with their help you can determine pregnancy even a few days before the expected menstruation.

No matter how much you test, you still have to go for an ultrasound

“If a pregnancy test is carried out according to all the rules and there are no internal reasons in the body that could affect its reliability, it does not matter what type of tests a woman uses: in 99% of cases it can be trusted,” says gynecologist Yulia Dolgo- Saburova. - In my many years of practice, there were only two or three cases when the tests were wrong.

However, the only irrefutable evidence of pregnancy is considered to be an ultrasound, which shows the fertilized egg. And you can see it no earlier than a week after the delay.

If on the first or second day of the delay the pregnancy test turns out to be negative, the specialist advises repeating it after 3 days. If it is positive, this is a definite reason to contact a gynecologist. If the test remains negative, it should be done in another three days. And if it turns out to be negative for the third time, and menstruation still does not begin, you need to consult a doctor as soon as possible.