You Are Not Pregnant And Your Period Is Late For Other Reasons
There are several other medical conditions that can result in a negative pregnancy test and no period, which is why it’s always wise to see your doctor if this occurs.
Some conditions that may cause your periods to stop unexpectedly are ovarian cysts, hyperthyroidism, polycystic ovarian disease, high follicle stimulating hormone , menopause, anorexia, secondary amenorrhea, obesity and adrenal cancer.
Changes in your diet can also result in changes to your menstrual cycle. The ketogenic diet or any diet that puts your body into a ketogenic state on a long term basis can affect your cycle.
One study in teenagers who ate a ketogenic diet to control a particular type of epilepsy found that 45% of subjects reported menstrual changes as a side effect.
How Soon Can I Take A Pregnancy Test
Pregnancy tests work by detecting a certain level of human chorionic gonadotrophin in your pee. You can take a pregnancy test as soon as youve missed your period. However, its best to wait at least one week after youve missed your period to get the most accurate results. While some tests claim to give you accurate results before a missed period, taking a test too soon can result in a false negative .
Your healthcare provider can take a blood sample to test for pregnancy as early as one week before a missed period.
How To Treat Bloating
In order to treat occasional bloating that appears due to pregnancy or other causes, you can try the following methods:
- eat slowly: as you read above, eating quickly leads to swallowing a lot of air, so try to take your time while you eating to decrease the chances of bloating
- avoid chewing gum: chewing gum simply leads to swallowing too much air, which might make your symptoms even worse
- eat smaller meals: people experiencing bloating are often more sensitive to having food in their stomachs, which is why eating smaller portions can alleviate some problems
- take supplements: taking probiotics or digestive enzyme supplements can help you overcome bloating and reduce the symptoms of gas or other digestive problems
- prevent constipation: constipation can make bloating symptoms even worse, so make sure you drink enough water, stay active and read about other tips that can help you fight against constipation.
- drink mineral water: like Donat! Its health benefits have been scientifically proven, as it draws the water from the intestinal wall, increasing the volume of the intestinal content, putting more pressure on the intestinal wall, and thus helping ease the way to unblocked bowels.
Bloating is an extremely common symptom of various conditions, and you can also feel bloated when pregnant.
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The Truth About False Negatives
Depending on when you took the test, you could get a false negative result. Home pregnancy tests arent always perfectly accurate especially if you take them too soon after your missed period. Different brands of tests have different guidelines about timing.
Even if the test you bought claims to be accurate on the first day of a missed period, youre better off waiting at least one more day. Your body needs to have a high enough level of the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin for the test to detect.
Early in pregnancy, HCG levels double every few days. Since your ovulation date could be slightly different each month, it may take a week or two after conception to get a reliable pregnancy test result.
Wait several days, and if you still dont get your period, take the test again. Its best to take a pregnancy test first thing in the morning, before your urine has been diluted with fluids from food and water.
If the second or third test is negative, its time to look at other potential causes of your missed period. Amenorrhea can happen for many reasons, and you may need to see a healthcare provider to get things back on track.
Here are eight possible reasons for a missed period and a negative pregnancy test.
Do You Kiss Your Child On The Lips Pros Cons And If You Should Stop
hCG can be detected in the urine only at a minimum of two weeks after conception occurs. For a 99% accurate test result, the test needs to detect at least 25 milli-international units per milliliter . In the first two weeks of pregnancy, only about 10 mlU/ml of hCG is present.
So, to get a reliable test result, wait two weeks after your period is missed. By this time, your body will be creating plenty of hCG, and your home pregnancy test will be far more accurate.
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When Should I Call My Doctor About A New Pregnancy
If youve missed your period and gotten a positive pregnancy test, your next step will be to call your healthcare provider for your first appointment. While scheduling, your provider may ask if you have already started taking a prenatal vitamin containing folic acid. Prenatal vitamins are important in early pregnancy because they help in the development of your babys neural tube. The neural tube will become your babys brain and spine. Many healthcare providers recommend that anyone who could become pregnant take folic acid at all times.
If youre planning a pregnancy, a preconception appointment with your healthcare provider is a good place to start. A preconception appointment is especially important if you take medication for a chronic illness or have other medical conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure or lupus.
During this appointment, your provider will discuss any current medical conditions, as well as your general health before pregnancy. This appointment is meant to get you into the best place for a new pregnancy.
A note from Cleveland Clinic
Last reviewed by a Cleveland Clinic medical professional on 07/26/2022.
References
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The Pregnancy Test Cant Detect Pregnancy Hormones Because The Levels Are Too Low
It takes at least ten days after conception for your body to produce enough of the human chorionic gonadotropin pregnancy hormone for a home pregnancy test to detect .
There are several reasons hCG levels can be too low to register a positive result, and they include:
- You tested too early
Even if youve already missed your period, you can get a false-negative result. Its not common, but it could happen if ovulation occurred later in your cycle than usual.
For example, you usually ovulate on day fourteen of your cycle. But this month, you were under a lot of stress and ovulated on day twenty instead. So, if you became pregnant, it would have happened about six days later in your cycle than usual, which means you wont get a positive pregnancy test until six days later.
If you get a negative result and suspect youre pregnant, try testing again in a few days if you still dont get your period.
- Your urine was diluted
You can also get a false-negative result if your urine is too diluted when you take your pregnancy test. For this reason, its best to use first-morning urine or test after you havent had any fluids to drink for about six hours.
A rare phenomenon called the hook effect can also lead to a false-negative pregnancy test result . A hook effect occurs when hCG levels are so high that the pregnancy test cant read it.
Situations that could cause a false-negative pregnancy test due to a hook effect include:
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Is Bloating A Sign Of Pregnancy
Firstly, heres a question for our readers: What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you feel uncomfortable bloating? Most probably you first blame it on a slightly bigger or less healthy lunch, dont you? However, this uncomfortable state can also be caused by some other, special and happier reason, because in some cases it can be one of the first signs of pregnancy. How can you then differentiate between bloating and the sign of happy anticipation?
Keep reading to find out the answer, especially if you normally dont have problems with your digestion or you are sexually active and you want to know if you are about to receive some happy news or maybe there is something else going on in your body. Improper diet and pregnancy are not the only enablers of bloating so it is good to know other causes of this type of digestive issues.
What Are The First Signs Of Pregnancy
As noted above, the most widely known early pregnancy symptom is a missed period, which usually appears about two to three weeks after conception.
However, some other very early signs of pregnancy could appear even before you realise your period is late or you experience bloating. Such symptoms include:
- tender breasts: due to higher levels of progesterone, you will probably start experiencing tenderness and swelling in your breasts
- sensitivity to smell: hormonal changes in pregnancy can also cause changes and sensitivity to smell
- spotting: spotting might occur as early as six days after conception, so it can represent one of the earliest signs of pregnancy
- frequent urination: frequent urination can start as soon as two weeks after conception, so its another very early sign of being pregnant
- fatigue: progesterone is to blame for the constant tiredness that is usually experienced within the first few weeks after conception, even though fatigue is common throughout the whole duration of pregnancy
- mood swings: just like with PMS and hormonal changes, pregnancy can also result in various mood swings, that vary from feeling excited, depressed, irritated and so on. So brace yourself for an interesting nine-month ride!
The above-mentioned symptoms represent some common signs of pregnancy at its earliest stages. Later on, they can be accompanied by morning sickness that usually develops before the ninth week of pregnancy, again due to an increase in pregnancy hormones.
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You Didn’t Follow Instructions Correctly
Read the instructions on your home pregnancy tests package carefully so that you can administer the test properlythe test is only as good as your ability to follow the instructions! Since the tests are qualitative, this makes them sensitive to the process of testing.
Most home pregnancy tests ask you to hold a test strip in urine, and pee on it while on the toilet. Some make you dip the test strip in a clean cup where you have collected the urine .
These are the main reasons for a missed period and negative pregnancy test but there are others. Periods can be late for a number of reasons.
You Are Pregnant But You Are Too Far Along In Your Pregnancy
Dr. Ann Gronowski, professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis calls this the “variant hook effect.”
She explains that part of the problem is that “hCG comes in many different isoforms, and after five weeks of pregnancy, you get much more of one variant form than you get of the hCG intact molecule.”
In other words, at-home pregnancy tests are intended to detect early molecular forms of hCG. After five weeks of pregnancy, the hCG’s molecular structure changes and that structure is unable to be detected as effectively, sometimes resulting in a false negative.
This is when a serum test would be your best option for accuracy.
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Why It’s A Problem
The more water, juice, etc. that you consume, the more hydrated you become. The more hydrated you are, the less concentrated your pee will be. And, when your pee isn’t concentrated, there’s less pregnancy hormone in it. Especially in early pregnancy, when HCG is often scarce, it’s important to take your test at a time when there’s enough hormone for the test to read.
So, though it’s tempting to take a test in the middle of the day after running out to the drug store, if you’re testing before your period is even supposed to start, or just a day or so after you’ve missed it, you really should try to hold off and test straight away in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink, ensuring that your urine is concentrated.
Drinking a bunch of water or apple juice so you can muster up enough pee to take a pregnancy test? Stop! Concentrated urine is the most accurate when detecting early pregnancy.
What If The Pregnancy Test Just Has A Really Really Faint Second Line
Annoyingly, the internet will tell you that any faint second line means your test is positive, but that’s just not true. Here’s some ways you can tell if that faint second line is actually an early positive:
- You’re using a pink dye test. The dye on these tests is much more reliable than blue dye tests, which often leave a vague second line even when they’re negative.
- You don’t have to hold the test up to the light to see the second line. If you’re doing that, then you’re just backlighting the indent that already exists for the dye of a true positive to pool into. If the only way you can see your second line is by holding it up to the light, consider it negative and try again in a few days.
- The second line appeared within a few minutes of taking the test. Some tests take longer to develop than others but if you’re pulling a test you took yesterday out of the trash and just now noticing a second line then it’s probably an evaporation line and the test isn’t a true positive.
Less than 40% of couples will successfully conceive in the first month of trying.
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You Are Pregnant But You Have Gestational Trophoblastic Disease
This is extremely rare. Gestational trophoblastic disease occurs when tumors form in the layer of cells called thetrophoblastthat normally surrounds an embryo. The most common form of GTD is called the hydatidiform mole, also known as a molar pregnancy.
These tumors are rarely cancerous, but the pregnancy usually ends in miscarriage because the embryo cannot form. Very rarely can a healthy baby emerge from a GTD pregnancy.
How To Get An Accurate Pregnancy Test Result
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Pregnancy Care Center Offers Compassion And Answers
You dont have to continue worrying about whats happening with your body. Pregnancy Care Clinic offers no-cost services to help you get the answers you deserve.
We can save you money by providing you with a medical-grade pregnancy test. If your test is negative, we are happy to repeat it for you. However, if your next pregnancy test is also negative with no period or if you have signs indicating a medical issue, we will recommend additional follow-up.
If your pregnancy test is positive, we can walk with you step-by-step, so you are empowered to make an informed pregnancy decision. This may include a limited ultrasound, education, and information about your options for an unexpected pregnancy.
Our licensed healthcare providers at Pregnancy Care Clinic are compassionate and skilled. You can visit us with confidence, knowing that you will never be judged here. So contact us for your confidential appointment today.
Resources:
Mayo Clinic Staff. . Home pregnancy tests: Can you trust the results? Mayo Clinic. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/getting-pregnant/in-depth/home-pregnancy-tests/art-20047940.
Cleveland Clinic Staff. . Pregnancy tests. Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/9703-pregnancy-tests.
Finally Please Dont Panic
Unless youre aware of a medical condition already please dont let a late period make you fear the worst straight away!
Rest assured that a missed or delayed period isnt an indicator of a decreased ability to conceive though we totally get it can be frustrating and even heartbreaking ?
Wed say: keep living a healthy lifestyle, keep trying, and join the MadeForMums Trying To Conceive forum so youve always got support from those in the same boat as you
Of course, if youre concerned about a number of late or missed periods, or are experiencing any unusual or uncomfortable symptoms – then do make an appointment with your GP, just to be on the safe side.
Read more:
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You Had An Early Miscarriage
If you feel pregnant but had a negative test result, you may have experienced a very early miscarriage . This occurs when there is a problem with the fertilized egg, most commonly a chromosomal disorder that makes the pregnancy non-viable. When the body detects this, it will spontaneously abort the fetus, often times before a person even knows that they are pregnant. Up until this point, however, symptoms of pregnancy may develop as hormones are steadily released into the system.
While an early miscarriage can occur in anywhere from 10% to 20% of known pregnancies, overall rates could very well be in excess of 50%. Miscarriages tend to be a one-off event most people are able to achieve and maintain a healthy pregnancy in later attempts.