Took a test at 10 weeks - it's gone really faint

[amandalk91]

I took a test because I just wanted to check everything was the same and going well, but it's so much fainter than a few weeks ago and I'm really worried. This is my first pregnancy so I don't know what's normal or not. My boobs don't hurt anymore, but maybe that's just the past couple of days I can't even remember I'm just stressing out. Is it normal to go fainter? I always thought it'd remain dark

[GailLondon]

This might be the Hook effect. (see some discussion on another forum here: forums.thebump.com/discussion/8706740/the-hook-effect-is-real )

It does seem that after a while, pregnancy tests get lighter. do you have another test handy? Try diluting your urine, 1 part urine to 10 parts water and try again to see if the line comes out stronger.

[amandalk91]

Thank you Gail! I just tried diluting it loads, and it's come back very positive (took a picture of both next to each other). Didn't know about this hook effect whatsoever. Is there a reason why my hcg would be so high?

[foxyfemke]

Your HCG levels will double every few days or so and towards the end of your first trimester your body produces a lot less HCG as you'll have a placenta then to look after the baby's needs. Until you have a placenta HCG has that job. So I imagine that at 10 weeks HCG levels are probably at their peak!

[amandalk91]

So do you mean I should really still get a bfp with no diluting? Sorry I probably havent completely understood haha, or is what had happened with me normal

[amandalk91]

Oh I get you now, nevermind ignore me!

[foxyfemke]

Well, if your HCG levels are so high a HPT can't cope with them, and you get a positive with diluted wee, then that'd makes sense.

I wouldn't be surprised if HPT are not made to cope with HCG levels at 10 weeks as by then you'd know you were pregnant.

As for your boobs not hurting so much at the moment, it goes through phases. Try not to worry too much. Symptoms come and go and as long as you've not had any big bleeds or lots of cramping, there's nothing to worry about.

[amandalk91]

Thanks for the reassurance :) yeah I've had no bleeding what so ever but I've had some cramping which I thought was normal, I'll just have to wait a couple of weeks til the scan I think.

[ViriBlack]

I see this message was posted a while back - but I wanted to let anyone who might see this message (like I did) know that this advice might be very useful to someone in the situation the original poster described here.

I am right at 10 weeks pregnant, and decided to "double check" via a pregnancy test strip that I was still seeing similar results to what I was seeing earlier in my pregnancy. I had no particular concerns about miscarriage - I was just checking in. The pregnancy line in the test I took this morning was distinctly fainter than I had ever seen before (last strip I took was a few days ago). I hadn't had a distinct change in pregnancy symptoms recently, but I've had generally somewhat milder symptoms (to date) compared to what many others appear to experience. I am using bulk pregnancy strips purchased from Amazon, and followed the same procedure today that I had been following previously with these strips.

The faintness of the pregnancy line with respect to the control line was quite concerning to me. I had heard of needing to, in some cases, dilute the urine sample a little later in pregnancy when using home pregnancy tests - but in that moment I completely forgot about ever having heard of that effect. I began panic-Googling and came across this original post. I followed the advice listed here (10% urine sample, 90% water) and retook the test. The test strip exposed to the diluted sample returned a much darker pregnancy line than control line. The results were quick to develop.

I used a new strip to check the undiluted sample (in case strip from earlier in the morning had just been bad). Results were similar to earlier in the day - pregnancy line was much fainter than the control line.

Special thanks to the people who posted this thread discussing the need, at least in some circumstances, to dilute the sample. If you come across a similar situation, diluting the sample as described in this post might be worth trying.

Thank you so much for posting this information! In a moment of stress I completely forgot about this effect, and I am so grateful that I came across this post today. The authors of this information reduced a tremendous amount of pressure for me today, and I really do thank you.