Why Was the Second Pregnancy Test Negative?

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Why could the first pregnancy test be positive and the second test not be positive?

If you’re trying to get pregnant time can stand still when you’re taking a pregnancy test. You know you are only waiting a couple of minutes, but it seems like the clock stopped ticking and the world is in a frozen state where the test will simply not turn one way or the other. When the test reads positive, you jump for joy and immediately run out to get another one to “make sure” the positive test was truly positive. What happens if the second test is not positive? Does it mean that you’re not pregnant?

How does a pregnancy test work?

Home pregnancy tests work by testing for the presence of HCG the human chorionic gonadotropin in your urine. You want to follow the instructions exactly as they are written so you wait for the first morning urine and you use that to test. hCG levels are higher in the morning than any other time of day, so if you are JUST pregnant enough to test positive, the pregnancy test will turn and you’ll be thrilled. And you need to read the results exactly at the right time. Reading it too early or later will potentially give you an incorrect result.

Then, you jump up and run out for the second test. This time you wait until you have to go to the bathroom and you take the second test. Your urine is now potentially diluted the second time around and the test suddenly reads negative. The reason for getting a negative test with more diluted urine is that the concentration, the amount of HCG per urine volme is less. The negative test causes you to be extremely sad you start your search for information about why the first pregnancy test is positive and the second negative – that’s how you arrived at this specific article.

What should you do?

Wait until the following morning to test again with the first morning urine. If the test is still negative – keep the positive test and the second negative morning test or take a picture of both side by side. Make an appointment with your Ob-Gyn to have a blood pregnancy test if available. Or, you can choose to wait another week and test again. Between the 3rd and 5th week of gestation hCG levels rise dramatically and the test will be positive no matter what time of day you test.