is it positive

[lora23]

ok so i just took a digital ept test it said "NOT PREGNANT" so i took it apart to see how it worked and there was a regular test strip like on any other test there was a extreamly faint second line does that mean its positive

[mum3]

i know alot of my preg test i did i had a really dark line to say the test worked and the line that shows the positive line would not show up till about 5mins after i took the test and even then you could hardley see it.
i did it 4 times and it did the same thing , and i have had three babies and each time i have had a faint positive line.
and i mean you had to turn it diffrent ways and look in diffrent lights ... lol
mum and i spent hours with my first going ummm arrrr what do you think to each other.....lol
so maybe try a diffrent test

[alaysha]

Here is an article from pee on a stick . com:

Most HPT's are pretty straightforward. They detect hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin, the "pregnancy hormone") in urine. If hCG is present, 2 pink lines (or a blue + sign) appear in the results window. If hCG is not present (or present in such a teeeeeeeeny tiny amount that it's not yet detectable), only 1 pink line (or a blue - sign) appear in the results window. The problem with this is, of course, that a hormone-crazed woman must read the results accurately. And for some of us, reading the results accurately means refraining from photographing in high resolution and adjusting color contrast, balance, solarizing . . . disassembling tests and holding them up to windows and/or halogen light bulbs . . . begging the test to cooperate and produce a second pink line . . . I digress. The point is, the tests results require interpretation and face it, there is some ambiguity in faint lines, time limits, evap lines, etc.

So the Clearblue Easy Digital (and e.p.t. Certainty) take away the need for interpretation with a digital display that says either "Pregnant" or "Not Pregnant." No lines to analyze. No color adjusting. No halogen bulbs. NO FUN!

When the test strip is ejected from the digital reader, however, there are lines on it. And, because it's in our nature, we peestickaholics ("Hi Meg!") want to analyze those lines. The test instruction booklet says the lines "must" be disregarded. But . . . why? Doesn't the test work the same way as every other HPT? Don't 2 lines = pregnant???

So, after the baby went down, I pulled up the FDA website and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office site and waded through FDA applications and patent documents. I was a woman with an obsession. Er, mission. And now I will share the Secret of the Digital with you.

The first piece of interesting information I uncovered was this: the digital HPT is classified by the FDA as a "Urine hCG By Visual Color Comparison Test." However, the patent information (U.S. Patent Number 5,622,871) makes it clear that the "visual color comparison" is not done by the naked eye. (By the way, when I say "makes it clear," I mean "uses the most technical, convoluted gobbledygook possible." The text of the patent mentions "a hollow casing constructed of moisture-impervious solid material containing a dry porous carrier which communicates directly or indirectly with the exterior of the casing such that a liquid test sample can be applied to the porous carrier." Now, I am an English snob-- I even use correct punctuation and capitalization in my e-mail-- but I would have said, "a waterproof handle with a wick that ***** up the pee.") Like so many other people, however, they didn't ask me ;)

Back to the test.

In simple terms, the digital test stick ***** up urine like a "regular" HPT. The test has a control line like every other HPT, to indicate the test worked properly. Then there is a "results zone" where a second line may or may not appear. Here's the difference: the second line may appear even if you are not pregnant, because the antibodies in the "results zone" are NOT testing ONLY for pregnancy hormone. Drumroll please. The "results zone" detects not only hCG (pregnancy hormone) . . . but also LH (luteinizing hormone.) LH is found in women's bodies almost all the time in some quantitity. (See the Fertility Info section for the nitty-gritty.) So, depending upon where you are in your cycle, how much LH your body produces normally (which can be thrown off by conditions like PCOS), you may see a second line even when there is no hCG ("Not Pregnant.")

Next question: Why does this HPT detect LH as well as hCG? After all, the presence of LH (or lack thereof) has no bearing on pregnancy detection.

Well, the best I can do there is quote the patent itself: "The determination of the presence of more than two (is multiple) [sic] analytes in any sample may have significant clinical utility." (Then it cites some examples in tests for heart disease and diabetes.) It does not elaborate further on the hCG/LH connection . . . so, in light of the fact that Clearblue just came out with a (disposable) digital ovulation predictor kit, my guess is the technology is the same in both tests and the company can use interchangeable parts and have the same patent cover both products.

Last question: How does the digital reader know what the result is? Here's the patent again: "... a standard curve can be generated by running strips with samples with known concentrations of E-3-G BI [the antibody "cocktail" with the dye/antibodies that detect the hCG and LH]. The colour at the immobile zone can be read, for example using a Minolta chromameter, and the concentration of E-3-G calculated by extrapolating from the reflectance value." In other words, your pee reacts with the reagents, makes a line (or doesn't), and the digital holder reads the specific intensity/color of the line, NOT SIMPLY determining whether a second line exists. (A "chromameter" just measures the shades of various colors-- so when teeth-whitening products say they'll lighten your teeth "at least two shades," they're basing those measurements of shades on a chromameter's reading.)

To recap: most women will normally see 2 lines on the Clearblue Digital test, pregnant or not, simply because of the normal, average, boring presence of LH. Our naked eyes cannot determine the "shade" or "intensity" of the second line, meaning our naked eyes can't make heads or tails out of the result. When the display says "Not Pregnant," believe it, until proven otherwise. (Note: Clearblue publishes the sensitivity of the digital test at 50 mIU/mL, but when questioned on their 800 line, they say 25. e.p.t. Certainty publishes their sensitivity as 50 mIU/mL as well. See the HPT FAQ for more info on why different tests work at different times-- and also why it is possible to receive a negative result and still be pregnant.)

[JoyRenee]

No it does not. That second line is not indicative of a positive result because it measures how much LH (luteinizing hormone), NOT HCG, is in your urine.