The largest number of questions in women are caused by dubious pregnancy test results, in which the second strip seems to be available, but so weak and blurry that it is completely unclear how to understand this and what it means.
General information
Tests of any brand, any manufacturer and any price category do not differ in any way from each other in their principle of operation. Everyone determines if a woman's urine is present Human chorionic gonadotropin is a specific hormone that is produced by the finest chorionic villi after implantation of the embryo.
A week after conception, on average, and in practice, in a large interval between 6 and 9 days after fertilization, the embryo is attached to the endometrial layer of the reproductive organ - the uterus. The level of hCG, to which all tests are sensitive, begins to rise after two days, and every two days it almost doubles.
The tests are designed in such a way that only the presence of molecules of this hormone in urine allows the chemical reagent to react and color the second strip blue or red. Accordingly, the more hormone in the urine, the brighter the strip becomes.
High hCG values are reached within 10-14 days after implantation, and therefore already on a 2-3 day delay, you can get a completely adequate clear positive result. Two equally bright stripes, clear and not smeared, are considered to be such. One clear line is a negative result, indicating that the reagent did not catch the desired hormone in the urine. The absence of strips at all is an invalid test, expired, unusable, as evidenced by the absence of even a control strip, which does not depend on the level of chorionic gonadotropic hormone.
Doubtful or false-positive is a result in which the control strip is clear, and the test strip is faded, weak, it is barely visible, but still distinguishable. An erroneous test should be distinguished from a weakly positive result, in which a "ghost" appears - a second grayish band.
Usually, this phenomenon occurs when a woman has waited too long after taking the test, the strip has dried out and the place where the reagent was applied appears. This is a testing error, which in principle cannot speak of pregnancy.
Reasons for a weak streak
The reasons for a weakly positive test are varied, and they need to be considered in more detail sequentially.
Violation of terms
As already mentioned, adherence to the recommended timing for diagnosis is the key to successfully obtaining a reliable result. But sometimes women are so waiting for a pleasant event in their lives that they literally cannot help themselves and begin to conduct tests too early.
remember, that for ultrasensitive systems, the earliest date is 4–5 days before the onset of the delay. These tests have a sensitivity of 5 to 10 or 15 mIU / ml. Moderately sensitive systems that are able to perceive the amount of the hormone after it crosses the line of 20 units per milliliter, it is recommended to carry out at the earliest 1–2 days before the delay, and routine tests with a perception threshold above 25 units - after the delay.
If a woman starts testing early, then there is nothing surprising in the weak 2 strip, which is barely visible. Most likely - this is pregnancy, just the level of the hormone is still low, it is above the sensitivity threshold, but less than the amount at which the reagent in full volume will enter into a chemical reaction and give a bright color. In principle, getting a test in which one stripe is bright and the second is pale, if the delay has not even begun yet, is quite normal.
Usually, the second or third test, carried out by a woman a couple of days after the first, shows brighter results, because the level of hCG is growing. And such dynamics says that pregnancy is developing. Some future mothers even collect a whole gallery of pictures on the topic “how my second stripe became brighter”. Take a look and see for yourself - the stripe really brightens.
Delayed ovulation or implantation
A woman's body is not a mechanism, it does not have to work with the accuracy of a clock or calculator. Therefore, ovulation can occur later than the woman expected, respectively, and conception will be later, since it is impossible without the release of an egg.
Ovulation may be several days late. The reason may be overwork of a woman, stress, colds and viral diseases that overtook her in the first half of the cycle, the recent cancellation of oral contraceptives, disorders of the hypothalamic-pituitary functions, metabolism, a sharp weight loss or weight gain. And even a pleasant plane trip, if you had to change time zones, climate, may well be the reason for the delay in the release of the egg.
The reasons for late implantation have not been studied, but it also rarely occurs. In these cases, even with a delay, it is possible to obtain a weakly positive result, because the level of the hormone is lower than in women who ovulated in the middle of the cycle on time.
You shouldn't worry either. If late ovulation and implantation are dangerous, there is only an insignificant risk of the threat of termination of pregnancy, but in practice this is rare. The strip, as in the first case, will gradually become brighter and clearer, just a little later.
Testing errors
Have you ever wondered why manufacturers of test diagnostic systems advise you to do an examination in the morning, on a portion of urine, which will be the first after waking up? And doctors, issuing an appointment to do a general urine test, also talk about the morning portion. And the fact is that after a long night's sleep, a more concentrated and dense urine in terms of the specific gravity of the components of urine accumulates in the bladder, in which there is more of everything. And this is especially true for hormones.
It is clear that after a delay in a week or two, when the concentration is clearly higher than 30 units per milliliter at any time of the day, it will be possible to do the test during the day, and at night, and in the evening. But in the very early stages, it is better to facilitate the task of the reagent and do an examination in the morning portion.
A weak second line that your test showed may be the reason for the examination at the wrong time of day.
A violation of the time allotted by the manufacturer for diagnostics can affect the color of the strip: if it is said that the device should be kept in the urine for 15 to 20 seconds, then this condition must be met.
Pathology
A mild, but still positive test can be obtained by a woman who, at the time of diagnosis, has exacerbated cystitis, pyelonephritis. In diseases of the kidneys and bladder, urination is disturbed, it becomes more frequent, and therefore the small portions of urine themselves are less concentrated, and it is impossible to endure 4 hours and not urinate with cystitis, the urge to urinate is sudden, sharp, painful.
A smaller amount of the hCG hormone and, as a result, a weakly noticeable second band can be with an ectopic pregnancy. If the embryo is attached not to the wall of the uterus, but to the wall of the oviduct, in the cervix, it cannot develop fully. Such a pregnancy, alas, is doomed. But in small quantities and with worse dynamics at first, the hormone is still produced, and this is what can cause a weak staining of the second strip. Usually, this with an ectopic is observed not before the delay, but after it. A distinctive feature of such a test will be the absence of the dynamics of color change and the clarity of the second strip, it will remain weakly expressed.
If you got a positive result, and then decided to repeat it, and repeated diagnostics showed a strip that turned pale or noticeably paler in dynamics, it is worth assuming a frozen pregnancy. The last week of the female cycle before the start of the delay is one of the most critical.
For a variety of reasons - from genetic abnormalities to embryogenesis defects due to negative external influences - the development of the baby can stop. In this case, the ovum still remains in the uterus for some time, but hCG begins to decrease.
Sometimes women don't even know what actually happened. It was just that the test was positive, and then my period came with a delay. And the fact that they were a little more abundant than usual does not bother anyone too much. So the uterus began to free itself from the dead ovum. This will happen when hCG drops to minimum values, progesterone falls and the endometrium begins to be rejected along with the ovum.
If the test does not want to be colored brighter or suddenly turns pale, you should see a doctor. Pregnancy pathologies can be established within a week after the start of the delay. From this time on, you can consider the ovum for ultrasound. Until this time, only one is available, but a very informative and very accurate method - a blood test for hCG. With an ectopic pregnancy, he will show an underestimated level of human chorionic gonadotropin in the blood plasma, and a repeated analysis will not show a significant increase, although there will be a slight increase. When freezing, a second analysis will show a decrease in hCG, which will be the first good reason to suspect a stop in the development of the fetus and its death.
And one more, more rare, but very dangerous and serious situation - obtaining a weakly positive result on any day of the cycle without reference to conception at all. An increased level of this hormone can be noted if there is a tumor in a woman's body that is capable of producing it on its own, usually these are malignant neoplasms.
Be sure to do a blood test and go for a consultation with a therapist, oncologist.
Residual hCG
In the blood and urine of a woman, a small amount of hCG can be determined, which is available for recognition by the reagent of the test system outside of pregnancy, or, more precisely, if the woman was recently pregnant. This is possible during the next menstrual cycle, which follows an abortion, miscarriage, or frozen pregnancy.
If such circumstances were, special attention should be paid to contraception for the period specified by the doctor, so that the body, organs of the reproductive system and the endocrine background of the woman have time to get in order.
Useful Tips
Seeing a noticeable, but unexpressed second strip, which is poorly visible, do not panic. In most cases, this indicates that pregnancy has come, you just need to wait a little and repeat the examination in order to admire a bright and noticeable strip that leaves no doubt. Pathological situations are less common, and therefore you should not immediately think about the bad. If the streak does not become evident after a week after the start of the delay, see your doctor. If you don't have the strength to wait, go to the clinic and donate blood for hCG - the test result in its accuracy exceeds any tests.
Pay attention when buying a test for an expiration date, usually women somehow miss this criterion, because the test is not milk or cottage cheese. But in vain. An expired test is invalid - this means that the reagent loses some of its properties and can deceive you at the most crucial moment for you. Doubtful and erroneous can be tests that were stored incorrectly, and therefore buy them in pharmacies, not in supermarkets.
When retesting, remember to choose the same brand of systems as the first time. Only in this case you will be able to objectively and adequately assess the dynamics of changes in the color saturation of the second strip. If there is no visible dynamics, try using a test with a higher sensitivity threshold.
For information on whether a pregnancy test can cheat, see the next video.
