The accuracy of a pregnancy test after a miscarriage depends on hormone levels, timing, and the type of test used. Over-the-counter tests may be less accurate than repeat blood tests, which show hormone levels and changes over time. False positives are common, especially if the test is done shortly after the miscarriage.
The accuracy of a pregnancy test after a miscarriage can depend on a variety of factors. Women who were later in their pregnancies will have higher hormone levels in their bodies than those who miscarried earlier, and those levels will take longer to fall. A test done shortly after the miscarriage will be more likely to show a false positive than one done after. Over-the-counter tests, which only show positive or negative, may be less accurate than a repeat blood test that shows actual hormone levels and how they’re changing. In general, a pregnancy test after a miscarriage has a good chance of showing a false positive result.
Pregnancy tests show results based on the amount of human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, in your blood or urine. Levels of this hormone rise rapidly during early pregnancy, so the longer the pregnancy, the higher the level will be. Therefore, women whose pregnancies have progressed further will tend to have more hCG and it will take longer for their level to return to zero. Depending on the amount of hCG present, it can take anywhere from a week to nearly a month for a pregnancy test after a miscarriage to be accurate.
The timing of a pregnancy test after a miscarriage is also critical for a valid result. Because of the variability in hCG levels women can have, as well as individual differences in the rate of decline, it can be difficult to determine how long after pregnancy loss a test may come back negative. A test done within the first week after a pregnancy loss will likely give a positive result as hCG levels will have had little time to fall; for some women, this may continue to be true for several weeks.
Different types of pregnancy tests may offer greater accuracy than others when used after a miscarriage. Over-the-counter tests come with varying degrees of sensitivity to urine hCG levels, so one test may still come back positive when hormone levels drop while others stop recording them. For truly accurate results, the best option is often to have a series of blood tests so that the results can be compared. These tests quantitatively show the amount of hCG in the blood, so if the numbers decrease over time, it’s typically a clear indication that a miscarriage has occurred.
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