The SO and I have not been ‘trying’ to conceive, but if it happened, we’d be happy. I, historically, seem to have fertility issues. Previous to my current guy, I was in another long-term committed relationship and we were also ready to have kids (or so I thought) and didn’t use protection for four years. Nothing, thank goodness (hindsight is 20/20, right?). The current (and last) SO and I haven’t been using protection for four years now as well. Last year he got tested and he’s a sperm machine, so it’s not him.
Last May I had a miscarriage at approximately seven or eight weeks. Following that, I continued to have regular period, like I have my entire womanly life - I never had odd cycles even as a teen.
I am between two and four days late (can’t remember the exact date) now and don’t feel like it’s on it’s way or anything. I calculated when I should have ovulated and we were sexually active at that time. Also, right in that ovulation time, I lightly spotted for two days, which is also odd.
I’ve taken six tests and all are negative. I am going to give it a few days and try again, and if nothing still, I’ll take a visit to the doctor for a blood test.
Has anyone had repeated negative tests and ended up pregnant still?
(P.S. I really, REALLY hope I am!)
(By ‘current (and last) SO’, I mean he’s it, he’s the one.)
Urine pregnancy tests are pretty good, but there are different reasons you could get a false negative. If it’s VERY early, the levels of hCG (the pregnancy hormone) are very low, and may not be detected in the urine.
Also, if your urine has a low specific gravity (if it’s very dilute), it may have diluted out the hormone to undetectable levels.
The recommendation is always to use the first morning urine, because the hormone will be in the highest concentration then. I also recommend the type of tests where you pee in a cup and then transfer a few drops to the test cartridge, because you have more control over it, as opposed to the ones where you hold the test wand in the stream of urine.
Serum pregnancy tests are more sensitive, so a visit to the doc would probably give you a more definite answer, but you could also wait a few more days and try the home test again.
Yes, I wonder about the pee issue. I pee a LOT. To the point that the SO thinks I should go to the doctor. We’re talking about 20 times a day. So dilution could be an issue.
I took a first thing test this morning, however, I got up four times during the night to pee, so it was probably diluted as well.
Bet you can guess that I’m super excited to be pregnant and have to pee more often!
It is totally possible. My sister (at the time 39 or 40) and her husband decided it was TIME for kids. She spent 5.5 months off birth control. All of the monthly pregnancy tests came back negative. She had irregular periods in that time, kind of light. She was seeing a physician regularly, she had some funny hormone up and downs, but the lab tests were pretty much within normal limits.(this is very common in our family, girls have regular periods only when they are on the pill). At about 5.5 months she had a positive pregnancy test. When she went in for the first ultrasound, she got the surprise of the year.
As near as I can figure, she got pregnant within 48 hours of deciding to have a baby.
You can have a late implanter. Sometimes they take a while to show up on a test.
Have you taken your temps in the morning? Are you charting? Take your temp first thing in the morning before you get out of bed. If you have an elevated temp (for many woman anything over 98.3 or so) that can be an indication of either pregnancy or a cyst.
Could be. We had tried for 18 months and I was on Clomid the month I got pregnant. I took one of the name-brand “we can tell you early” tests the day before my period was due and it was negative. I took a cheapy brand the morning I was actually due. This one wasn’t positive either, but I felt like if you held it just right in the right light, you could see a line (hubby never did see it). So, since I always buy the box set of two, I took another one that night and another one the next day, all negative.
Two days later I went in to the doctor and she actually called it a “weak positive”. I asked her what she meant and she said that I was definitely pregnant, but never did explain what she meant by weak.
I figure maybe I had a late implant or something. But who knows what else was going on. I KNOW when I got pregnant, because my husband was out of town that whole month with the military and I had gone to visit him for the few days when the Clomid said I should. All 4 of my ultrasounds measured my daughter about a week smaller than she should have been (including the really early ones when all babies are supposed to be the same size). When she was born a preemie, the tests they ran then also had her scoring a week younger than she should have been.
I finally took a home pregnancy test again when I was about 3 months pregnant, just so I could have a positive one to take pictures of to put in my scrapbook!
UPDATE: My impatient self just happened to grab a test while I was at the grocery store. I’m pretty sure it’s a faint positive! I have had a lot of liquids today, so it could be a dilution thing. I have a second test that I’ll take first thing in the morning. I’ll keep you updated, but I am so excited and hopeful!
Many women do not test positive until they are a week late or more. It depends on implantation, which can be delayed. Or you can have a weak test. I never got a bright pink line - I got a very faint pink line, which I ran through photoshop to enhance red tones just to be sure! The doctor finally confirmed for me. Good luck and if you aren’t successful this month, consider reading “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” and charting. I conceived after two months using this method.
About 11 years ago, my SIL suspected that she was pregnant. She took several tests that all came out negative–it took a blood test to confirm that she was indeed pregnant.
When she was about eight months along, she decided that, just for laughs, she’d take another home test.
It came out negative.
We never have known why that happened, but it was definitely a fluke, because the next time she got pregnant, it showed up on the home test with no room for doubt!
My guess is that by 8 months, she was peeing so frequently (due to a smooshed bladder) that her urine wasn’t concentrated enough to trigger an HCg test.
While that’s likely to be a part of it, hCG levels also peak around the end of the first trimester and then decline quite a bit.
This graph is the best I could find on short notice, but it more or less shows what I mean. hCG is highest in early pregnancy, which makes it an excellent marker to use for a pregnancy test.
Sure, but it’s still WAY higher at even 40 weeks than at, say 4-5 weeks LMP, which is when many women get positive results with a HPT. Unless my book’s numbers are wrong, IANALab dudette:
No, your numbers are right, or at least pretty close to the normal values my lab uses. I was just adding an additional (possible) reason for a pregnancy test to come up negative when the woman is obviously pregnant - you’re working with less total hormone by month 8, so it dilutes more easily anyway.
Don’t worry, I know better than to argue with you over fertility stuff! You’ll kick my ass!
This was before HPTs, but hey, Mom’s doctor claimed the reason she hadn’t had periods in four months must be “some sort of adhesions, we’ll scrape them off.” The nurse convinced him to run a pregnancy test first, because “well, yes, she’s sterile but she’s also married, you know.”
I’ll be 40 on Thursday.
SiL got three negatives; then she had a 24h guard at the hospital’s ER, the Gyne on guard was one she likes a lot. She went to the gyne “oh, I’ve been feeling real weird, and gaining weight even though I’m not eating so much, and I’m nauseous all day, but I can’t be pregnant, can I? We’ve only been trying for three weeks and I took three HPTs and they were all negative.”
Doc said “well, it sounds to me like a pregnancy, but let’s take some blood and do an ultrasound while we wait for the results.”
A few minutes later: “if that ain’t a fetus I’m not a Gyne.”
