What does a faint line on a pregnancy test mean?

The two-week wait (the time between ovulation and a missed period) can be frustrating when you’re trying to determine if you’re pregnant or not. That time may seem to drag on, leading you to test before you miss a period. This, among other reasons, can lead to a faint line on a pregnancy test, causing even more confusion – am I pregnant? And how long do I have to wait to test again? Here’s how to navigate what to do if you get a faint line on a pregnancy test.

What does a faint line on a pregnancy test look like?

A faint line on a pregnancy test is difficult to read because it’s barely visible. A line that’s supposed to be red may appear light pink, for example, and a line that is supposed to look blue if positive will be very light blue.

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Before you determine whether or not you have a faint line, it can be helpful to understand what a positive test result looks like. A positive pregnancy test result will look different depending on the kind of test you use.

Results from a home pregnancy test may look like:

• A plus or minus sign
• One line or two lines (with two lines indicating pregnancy)
• A pink line
• A blue line
• The words “pregnant” or “not pregnant”
• The words “yes” or “no”

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Read the package instructions carefully. They’ll tell you exactly how to do the test and how to read the results. Most tests have a control line where you can check to see that you did the test correctly. If that control line is blank, then the test didn’t work, and you’ll want to do another one.

In an effort to read very early test results, or test results that are unclear, some women turn to pregnancy test tweaking. This involves taking a photo of your home pregnancy test and editing it to see if you can detect the line that indicates pregnancy. There’s no proof that this is reliable and experts don’t necessarily recommend it, but some women are giving it a try. You can learn more about test tweaking in the BabyCenter Community.

What does a faint line on a pregnancy test mean?

A faint line on a pregnancy test probably means that it’s very early in your pregnancy. Even a faint positive pregnancy test indicates that you have some of the pregnancy hormone human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) in your system.

Your body starts producing hCG right after implantation. If you have a typical 28-day menstrual cycle, hCG may be detectable in your urine 12 to 15 days after ovulation if you’re pregnant. The levels of hCG are very low at first and then they rise quickly, usually doubling every three days in early pregnancy. That’s why you might have a faintly positive result at first and one that’s crystal clear a few days later.

Here’s why you might see a faint line on your pregnancy test results:

• Testing too early
• Using an expired test
• Not checking the results in time. The directions will tell you to check the results within a certain amount of time (usually a few minutes). That’s because the results are accurate when the urine is still wet. Once it dries, urine may leave a faint line where it evaporated – an “evap line.” Unlike positive result lines, which are usually dark or bright, an evap line will be colorless.
• Very diluted urine. To minimize the possibility of this happening, take your test first thing in the morning, when your urine is most concentrated.
• Using a less sensitive brand to do an early test – some are more sensitive than others at detecting low levels of hCG.

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Of course, if it’s really too early, you may not even see a faint line. Instead you might get a negative result because your hCG levels aren’t high enough to be detected. The earlier you test, the higher the chances that you’ll get a false negative test even if you’re pregnant. It’s recommended to wait until at least your missed period (ideally a few days after that) , to start testing to prevent this confusion.

What to do if you see a faint line on a pregnancy test

If you see a faint line, the best thing to do is wait a few more days and take another home pregnancy test. By then your levels of hCG will rise enough to give you a clearly visible result.

Another option is to ask your healthcare provider to confirm that you’re pregnant with a blood test, which can usually detect pregnancy a few days earlier than a home pregnancy test. (The hormone hCG can be detected in the blood about 6 to 8 days after you ovulate, typically a few days to a week sooner than in urine.)

If you saw a faint positive result and retested in a few days with a negative result (or you got your period after testing positive), you may have experienced a chemical pregnancy or early miscarriage. A chemical pregnancy means the egg was fertilized but didn’t completely implant. So your body may have produced a little hCG but then stopped when the embryo stopped developing.

What can cause a false positive pregnancy test?

It’s pretty rare, as pregnancy tests are accurate 97 to 99 percent of the time, but there are reasons you might have hCG in your body and not be pregnant, giving you a false positive result on your pregnancy test:

• An early pregnancy loss. This might be from a chemical pregnancy or an ectopic pregnancy. A chemical pregnancy happens if the fertilized egg doesn’t implant. An ectopic pregnancy happens if the fertilized egg implants someplace other than the uterus (usually in a fallopian tube). You might have this if you have one or more faint lines on a pregnancy test, followed by a negative pregnancy test. If you continue to get a faint line, talk with your doctor to figure out what’s going on.
• Fertility drugs and some other medications. Medications that are used in fertility treatment may contain traces of hCG that remain in your system for a week or more. Most medications, including birth control medication, won’t affect the accuracy of your pregnancy test.
• A recent birth, miscarriage, or abortion. It can take weeks for hCG to completely leave your system after a pregnancy.
• Perimenopause or menopause. Higher levels of luteinizing hormone from perimenopause or menopause could possibly result in a positive pregnancy test.
• Certain medical conditions. Rarely an ovarian cyst and some cancers can cause a false positive pregnancy test result.

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