thread: HPT BFN when you're actually pregnant: How often do you think it happens?

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  1. #1
    Registered User

    Jan 2010
    Morisset, NSW
    95

    HPT BFN when you're actually pregnant: How often do you think it happens?

    I'm currently ttc.... 12 days late and getting BFN's.
    I have heard of a few other people getting early BFN's when they are actually pregnant.... But I often wonder, how often does it happen?
    All the boxes like to say they're 99% accurate, but then all these people I hear of getting BFN's. One lady I know, right up into her 6th month, she was still getting BFN's on HPT's despite knowing she was pregnant because a blood test had told her so. She just wanted to know how long it would take the test to register.

    So is it more of a rarity and some people are odd, or it happens more often than the manufacturers want people to think?
    What do y'all think?


    ETA: My doctors clinic is the only bulk billing clinic in town and is very overbooked. Telling me to go to the doctors... not helpful. Thats not what this thread is about. I'm curious on peoples opinions regarding whether or not negative HPT's when you're actually pregnant, are possible. I ask because yes, I am experiencing negative tests, and I'm aware I need to see a doctor, but thats not what I'm here asking for.
    Last edited by Moondance; February 6th, 2010 at 03:07 PM. : this thread is about the general consensus on whether or not false negatives exist, its not sposed to be about ME.

  2. #2
    Registered User

    Jan 2009
    brisbane
    2,521

    hi moondance..
    first i just wanted to welcome you to bellybelly and wish you luck for your ttc journey.
    i just wondered if you were on the pill and if this is your first cycle off the pill. my first cycle off the pill was 5 months long... it went very slowly.
    good luck hun

  3. #3
    Registered User

    Jan 2010
    Morisset, NSW
    95

    No, I haven't touched the pill since I was 16 years old, now 28.
    Last year, my menses settled down to a 40 day cycle which at first I thought odd, but then when 5 months later, it was still a 40 day cycle I figured thats just where my body settled. It never bothered me, it meant I got my periods slightly less. I hate periods, so no.... not anything to do with the pill.


    but the only reason I gave the info as to me being late was for background as to why I'm asking... but thats NOT what I'm here for.... I'm here looking for statistics, articles, personal stories, about whether false negatives are more prevalent than we hear they are. I didn't come here for advice for me personally. Thats not why I'm asking.
    Last edited by Moondance; February 6th, 2010 at 03:25 PM.

  4. #4
    Registered User

    Jan 2009
    brisbane
    2,521

    if i was you i would go to the dr and ask for some blood test. first to find out if you are preg, but also your hormone levels to see if you are ovulating coz from your charting im not sure if you are. also accupuncture is great to regulate and shorten cycles.

  5. #5
    BellyBelly Life Subscriber

    May 2005
    in the national capital
    1,682

    The tests are realistically about 99% accurate if used properly and not faulty.

    What you have to remember is that they can only pick up hormone levels once they reach a certain level within the urine - and it is different for the various brands of tests. And then they rely on averages for hcg levels (the hormone that they pick up) when they talk about which days after your period is due that they will pick up a pregnancy.

    There will always be people that for whatever reason they don't work for - most likely because there is something else in the urine that is interfering with the test - that is why they aren't ever given 100% accuracy.

    So, in answer to your question - the tests are actually really good and have all passed really strict tests for accuracy before they are approved for sale in Australia (yep - there is a govt department that employs people to make sure that pregnancy tests are accurate!) - no guarantees if you buy imported ones off ebay or the like.

    Most false negatives are because the person is not using them properly or it is just too early to pick up the pregnancy (which is why the suggest on the packaging that if you get a negative but suspect that you are preg you should retest several days later).

    False positives (that are actual false positives rather than very early miscarriages and chemical pregnancies) are extremely rare and are caused by a faulty test (which isn't unheard of) or if the woman is excreting something in her urine that replicates the hcg - some powerful prescription medications (can't remember which ones this minute) are known to have this effect.

    Hope that this helps.

  6. #6
    Registered User

    Jan 2010
    Morisset, NSW
    95

    I didn't even realise they sold home pregnancy tests on ebay! LOL

    And hey, of course my chart isn't going to give you all the info regarding my ovulation... I wasn't temping until about the 19th of January.... so of course, no info there from that long ago...

  7. #7
    Registered User

    Mar 2006
    soon to be somewhere exotic
    1,550

    One of my girlfriends was still getting BFN on POAS at 3 months pregnant. The Drs ended up confirming the pregnancy. So yes it can happen.

  8. #8
    Registered User
    Add *TripleJ* on Facebook

    Jan 2009
    Diggers Rest VIC
    2,945

    my stepmum also for negatives when she was preg with 2 of her 4 kids