What Does a Faint Line on a Home Pregnancy Test Mean?Home pregnancy test kits work by detecting a hormone called hCG in a woman’s urine. hCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin, is a glycoprotein hormone which is secreted by the placenta after an egg has been fertilized and implanted into the uterine lining. The amount of hCG in the woman’s body increases as the pregnancy progresses and the fetus grows. There are generally three types of pregnancy tests which can be used at home. The dip tests require being submerged in a container with urine for a few seconds before the results are ready. The midstream tests can be used while the woman is urinating. And then there’s the droplet tests, wherein a woman gathers her urine sample and using a dropper, places a few drops onto the test device. All these tests are reliable and all rely on hCG content. Many manufacturers of home pregnancy test kits require a minimum of five minutes waiting time. This is because the line can still change in a span of three to five minutes. The best way to really read results accurately is to take a look at them within the reaction time of the test, which is typically five to ten minutes, and not after this period, because many brands have evaporation lines, which could be misread as false positive or false negative. There are three common reasons for a very faint line on a home pregnancy test kit. First, the testing may have been done too early (less than ten days after conception). The second reason is that the test could have low sensitivity. Finally, the urine sample used was diluted (which affected the concentration of hCG in it). An untoward reason for a faint line is a chemical pregnancy, or an early miscarriage. Related articles
What Does a Faint Line on a Home Pregnancy Test Mean? |