Can a positive pregnancy test be wrong

Maybe you can’t wait to have a baby. Or maybe that’s the last thing you’re hoping for.

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Either way, if you think you might be pregnant, you need to know for sure. But what are the odds a positive pregnancy test might be wrong?

“Home urine pregnancy tests are pretty reliable,” says Ob/Gyn Jonathan Emery, MD. “But there are some reasons you might get a false-positive result.”

Dr. Emery explains when and why a pregnancy test might give a false positive — and what you can do to make sure the stick doesn’t lie.

How do pregnancy tests work?

When you get pregnant, your body produces a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG. Home pregnancy tests look for that hormone in your urine. If hCG is present, you should get a positive test result when you pee on a stick.

But hCG levels start out very low and increase over time. If you take the test too soon after conceiving, it might say you’re not pregnant when you really are.

In other words, timing can lead to a false negative. But what about a false positive?

False positives aren’t super common, Dr. Emery says. But they’re not impossible. Some potential causes include:

Early miscarriage or chemical pregnancy

You took a pregnancy test and got two lines. (Positive!) But a few days later, your period arrived in force. What gives? The most common reason this happens is an early pregnancy loss, also known as a chemical pregnancy. In this case, the test was accurate — there was a pregnancy, but it wasn’t a viable one, Dr. Emery explains.

“It’s not technically false since a very early pregnancy did occur,” he says. “But this is the most common reason that a pregnancy test might appear to have been false.”    

Fertility medications

“A lot of fertility treatments involve taking hCG injections,” Dr. Emery says. If you’ve been taking fertility medications, that hCG might still be floating around your system.

That could trigger a positive pregnancy test, even if you’re not pregnant. To avoid that mix-up, wait at least two weeks after your last hCG injection to take a home pregnancy test, he says.

Recent pregnancy

If you were recently pregnant, you might still have leftover hCG in your system. After childbirth, miscarriage or treatment for ectopic pregnancy, the hormone can remain in your body for up to four to six weeks, Dr. Emery says. “That could lead to a positive pregnancy test when your body just hasn’t cleared the hCG yet.”

User error

Home pregnancy tests aren’t especially hard to use. But you still have to pay attention since a mistake can lead to incorrect results.

If you wait too long to read the results, for example, or use more drops of urine than the test calls for? You might want to take the answer with a grain of salt. “If you don’t follow all the instructions, any results — positive or negative — could be false,” Dr. Emery says.

Pregnancy test accuracy: How to get results you can trust

Luckily, false positives are rare. And there are steps you can take to make sure your home pregnancy test gives you results you can trust.

• Time it right. Don’t take a test too early. It’s more likely that you’ll get a false negative — or that the test will detect a chemical pregnancy that isn’t able to progress. Dr. Emery recommends waiting until the day of your missed period, or a few days later, to take the test. “Timing is important. The test is most accurate if you wait at least until the day of your expected period,” he says.
• Follow the directions. Make sure your test isn’t expired. Read the directions before you start. And follow the steps exactly to avoid a stressful false result.
• Repeat it. If you got a positive home pregnancy test, you might be eager to get a blood test to confirm the result. Blood tests are more accurate, so that’s certainly an option. But it isn’t always necessary, Dr. Emery says. “If you get a positive result from a urine test, then repeat the test in three to five days. If it’s still positive, you can trust the result,” he says.

Home pregnancy tests are inexpensive, private and quite reliable, Dr. Emery adds. “People often don’t believe what they’re seeing. But if you’ve used the test correctly and done it at the right time, it’s probably true.”

No matter what, taking a pregnancy test can be an emotional roller coaster. When it comes to getting a false positive pregnancy test result, the experience can be deeply upsetting, particularly for anyone who has had a difficult time getting pregnant or is actively hoping to get pregnant (or both). The hope that comes with seeing that positive sign crashing down as you realize it was a false positive pregnancy test? It's a uniquely devastating emotion. 

Of course, getting a false positive pregnancy test when you’re actively trying not to get pregnant can be just as horrible. Yup, you could probably do without the panicked verification trip to the ob-gyn, just to learn there was nothing to stress over. 

Thankfully, experts note that false positive pregnancy tests are rare. Unfortunately, though, they can happen. Here are some of the most common causes of a false positive pregnancy test, along with some additional information that can help you put it all into context.

First, what is a pregnancy test?

Let's start with the absolute basics just to make sure we're all on the same page. A pregnancy test tells you if you’re pregnant or not. That's simple enough to understand. But it's understandable if you're a little fuzzy on the details of what these devices actually look for to identify a pregnancy.

At-home pregnancy tests check for the hormone hCG. HCG is short for human chorionic gonadotropin, which the body creates during pregnancy. Right after a fertilized egg attaches to the uterine lining, the placenta then forms and starts producing hCG1. A blood test can detect hCG about nine days after conception, and a urine test can detect it 12 to 14 days after conception, according to the Cleveland Clinic, although it varies—some especially sensitive urine tests can detect a pregnancy even earlier. A person’s hCG level typically doubles every 72 hours through 8 to 11 weeks of pregnancy. Then it remains consistent and starts to go down after delivery.

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How does a pregnancy test work?

An at-home pregnancy test is designed to find hCG in pee2. If the hormone is present, it triggers a chemical reaction and the test signals that you're pregnant. If hCG is not present, the test will say you aren't pregnant. Many tests use two lines to mean you’re pregnant and one line to mean you’re not—but it depends on the test brand. Some tests use plus and minus signs. Some digital pregnancy tests have a screen that plainly reads "pregnant" or "not pregnant." Which can save you some “Is that one line or two?!” squinting, at least.

Seems simple, right? As Ina Garten would say, "How easy is that?" Typically, pretty easy. Most at-home pregnancy tests claim to be about 99% accurate3. Ultrasounds typically can't detect a pregnancy until a little later in your pregnancy and that's why at-home tests are so useful. But, sometimes, other elements can mess with a pregnancy test's results and tell you you’re pregnant when you’re really not. 

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What can cause a false positive pregnancy test?

Here are the most likely reasons you may end up with a false positive pregnancy test:

1. You let the test sit too long before looking.

If you take a standard pregnancy test with line indicators, it's important to check the results according to the specific instruction of the test. If you let it sit too long before reading the results, urine on the test can evaporate and make it look like you have two lines instead of just one. "Oftentimes people will see evaporation lines as urine starts to evaporate off the test," Jamil Abdur-Rahman, M.D., board-certified ob-gyn, tells SELF. That might cause the test to look like it has a faint second line—making it positive—but it really only has one.

The best way to avoid this: Read the pregnancy test's directions and follow them exactly. The popular pregnancy test brand First Response, for example, instructs users to wait three minutes after taking the test, then read it as soon as possible4.

2. The pregnancy test is expired.

The second most common reason Dr. Abdur-Rahman's patients get false positives is because the test is expired, he says. When a test is past its expiration date, the chemical that detects hCG doesn't always work as it should, and you’re more likely to get a misread. "The test can expire and the chance of having a false positive increases," Dr. Abdur-Rahman says.

3. You’re on fertility medications that raise hCG levels.

If you take a pregnancy test too soon after taking a fertility drug that contains hCG—like some injections that are often part of in vitro fertilization—you could get a false positive.

How likely is a positive pregnancy test wrong?

How do you know if it's a false positive pregnancy test?

Why am I testing positive but not pregnant?