My friend missed her period this month. She’s sexually active, but always uses a condom.
She took a home pregnancy test last Monday, it came out negative.
She went in today, a week and a half later, to a clinic and they performed a test (same urine-style test as before). Still negative, but this time it was later and also performed by a doctor, so there’s less room for error.
Since she still hasn’t had her period, or any indications of an oncoming period, I wonder if she’s in the clear. Is it possible that some people don’t affect pregancy tests? Or is it perhaps just stress or something else that’s caused her cycle to call it quits?
The factual question here is whether there are some people for whom pregancy tests don’t work, and if so, what should they do.
Well from what I understand there are some people who do not produce enough hormones to show up on home pregnancy tests.
My mother was pregnant and could not get a urine test to show the pregnancy. A blood test did though. She lost the baby after a couple of months.
Some people also have wacky cycles. I can go 6 months between periods and that’s not unusual for me. I don’t know how regular your friend is but if this is a deviation from her norm she may want to contact a doctor and see why things changed. Stress, a change in eating habits or sleeping habits, lots of things really can screw up one’s cycle.
Does she have any other symptoms of pregnancy? How late is she… The doctor who performed her test should be able to tell her how reliable her test was. If she feels something is definitely going on with her body she should request a blood test.
I think it’s the stress that’s postponing her period. Periods are very cruel that way - the more anxious you are to have them, the longer they take. This has happened to me twice, once my period was 2 weeks late.
It would be good if she went on something else in addition to Condoms. There are some shots that she could get once every some months which I hear are very effective.
Well, my mother only ever had one positive pregnancy test in her life…with my older brother. All of the tests she took with me were negative. (These were doctor’s office tests, back in the days before fairly reliable home tests.) They’d finally convinced her she wasn’t pregnant, so she went to a gyno to find out what was wrong with her. He did a quick pelvic and diagnosed little ole me.
Your friend could be pregnant, could be having normal hormonal fluctuations, could be having abnormal hormonal fluctuations due to stress or disease, or could have some sort of infection. If this persists, she needs to go to the doctor.
And I second the vote for a more reliable form of birth control. Condoms have a typical use failure rate of 10-15%, and using them in conjunction with something else is never a bad idea.
If the test done in the doctor’s office was a first-morning urine specimen, and was taken 7 days after a missed period, the chance of it missing an actual pregnancy is far, far smaller than the chance that she is *not[i/] pregnant.
The tests these days, when done properly, are quite accurate.
The test was done at 1:30 pm, not first thing in the morning. It was a good week and a half to two weeks after she expected her period (she says she doesn’t keep track of her cycle and thinks it’s somewhat irregular… but without keeping track, she can’t be sure).
I’ll ask her about the first-morning thing. That makes sense. Thanks, QtM.
Back in the 70s my mom never did get a positive with me.
A blood test would remove all doubt for your friend, IMHO. Most hospitals’ll do them for about 10 bucks, results in an hour.
I had a regular cycle until last year and I went 40 days without one. It could be that your friend’s cycle is changing. Gaining/losing weight can do it, also stress, also fatigue/illness.