Can a pregnancy test result be false positive before menstruation?

Early pregnancy test strips are used to detect whether a woman is pregnant. However, using early pregnancy test strips can easily result in false positives. Using early pregnancy test strips in the early stages of a woman's menstrual period can easily result in false positives due to changes in hormones or endocrine system in the human body. The test can be performed 1-2 weeks after the menstrual period is delayed.

Can a pregnancy test result be false positive before menstruation?

How to identify a false positive before menstruation

Although early pregnancy test strips are a very convenient way to detect whether you are pregnant, they are not 100% accurate, especially before the menstrual period, when a false positive reaction may occur. Some people may also get a negative result if they are pregnant for a short period of time. Therefore, it is best to go to the hospital for a blood or urine HCG test.

Causes of false positive pregnancy test

Why does a false positive appear in an early pregnancy test? To know the reason, we need to look at the principle of early pregnancy test.

1. After becoming pregnant, women will secrete human chorionic gonadotropin, which can be detected in urine.

2. There is almost no HCG in the urine of non-pregnant women. The early pregnancy test strip determines whether you are pregnant by detecting the value of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) in urine.

3. Under normal circumstances, there are two results of early pregnancy test: drop urine into the detection hole on the test paper. If a colored band appears in the control area of ​​the test paper (some test papers appear red, some test papers appear blue), it indicates negative, indicating that you are not pregnant. On the contrary, if a clear color band appears in the test area, it indicates a positive result, indicating that the pregnancy is already there.

4. 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 false positives or false negatives may occur when using early pregnancy test strips.

5. Some people use early pregnancy test strips and find out that they are pregnant, but when they go to the hospital for a check-up, they find out that they are not pregnant. The early pregnancy test strip shows a false positive.

6. 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.

Generally speaking, if women do their own pregnancy tests at home, without any outside guidance, the test results are generally only 51% to 76% accurate. A false positive pregnancy test may be caused by nervousness or other factors.