Do you think that early pregnancy tests have caused more trouble than they've solved?

I think if you are just casually ttc then there is no need to know (but some women want to know and that's ok). However if you are at the stage when you are having treatment or tests then I think it can be helpful to know if you have a problem getting pregnant or if your problem is staying pregnant.

yes, I have never heard of a chemical, and do not know what it is

In my day you had to wait until 2 weeks late and then either go to docs for a test or pay a fortune for one of the newfangled tests from Boots which were about £12, a lot of money then

I missed a period once when I was young and it was REALLY heavy the next month, I always wondered if this was a miscarriage but I will never know. I was always regular.

I did have a miscarriage once when I fell down the stairs and landed on my bum, I did not realise that I was pregnant but started spotting for about 2 weeks, I finally went to docs and I was about 11 weeks and my cervix was open and I had to have a D&C after a scan

It just never entered my head to get a test, probably cos they were so expensive

Sorry but recurrent miscarriage clinics do consider chemical pregnancies to be miscarriages.

I think early tests are great, anything that gives women knowledge is a good thing. If they don't work for you, then don't use them.

I do think there should be more awareness around miscarriage and the fact that having one or two on the way to an average sized family is very normal.

But repeated early miscarriages (and that's what chemicals are, your GP should record them as a miscarriage although not all will) are not normal and as others have said that's useful information as conception is quite complicated and it's not always easy to pin down the problem.

Most conceptions don't become established pregnancies. Almost every mother on earth ever, has had "chemicals" but luckily 99.9% of them have never known.

it isn't though, a miscarriage is a lost pregnancy. These were never established pregnancies, so they are not miscarriages.

I've had one and would still rather know. Even with early miscarriages the bleeding isn't necessarily like a heavy standard period. When I first realised I was bleeding abnormally I was concerned it could be cervical cancer related. A sensitive test detected hcg, which at least saved me unnecessarily having further tests for abnormal bleeding and more worry.

There is also a lot of symptom similarities between very early miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, which I don't think is widely enough known. Bleeding/on going spotting and levels of hcg that are lower and not rising normally could actually be an ectopic rather than a chemical pregnancy. Therefore early tests can also help to pick up ectopics earlier by detecting that hcg is present and getting checked out if these don't fall to non pregnant levels after a miscarriage, rather than risking waiting for the pregnancy to grow enough to rupture and potentially be life threatening.

I don't think this conversation should be shut down. We're allowed to consider the pros and cons of these things.

I've had 4 miscarriages and the CB with weeks indicator correctly predicted my MC every single time.

For me that was preferable, I'd rather know what was happening than have false hope.

yes and no

i had a straight forward pregnancy with my son but then had 6 mc ( 3 of these were chemicals technically) before I had my daughter

the three years of recurrent miscarriages were pure hell and I tortured myself with pregnancy tests .

I think they have a place but the clear blue weeks indicators ones are the worst and cause so much stress

I don't understand how when people say they didn't test til a week after their missed period it makes any kind of difference. I would know I was pregnant by then, test or no test, because I track my cycles and they run like clockwork.

It's insensitive to all manner of people OP, not just those who are TTC.

Yes. I had multiple miscarriages. I stopped testing. I think I had another miscarriage but can’t confirm it because I didn’t test. That made it easier for me to deal with. Then I got pregnant with DD. I tested. Not an early test - my period was about a week late. I cried because I was expecting another miscarriage.

It took a good few months before I realised that you might actually have a baby after getting pregnant.

Not using early tests would have saved me from a lot of heartache but not from all of it (also lost pregnancies at around 6 weeks, 9 weeks and 13 weeks).

Totally agree op. I didn't test until I'd missed 2 periods - I had PCOS so it was usual for me. I've been pregnant twice, once resulted in a child, once was a MC at 11 weeks, which I cannot be sad about because it was not a baby and it was not meant to be.

Agree ! It’s all about money.

Back in the day we just did a pregnancy test ,if positive great and then waited for scan at 12 weeks 🤷‍♀️Definitely think tracking HCG levels and mumsnet makes pregnancy more stressful!!

Shit! Sorry, I've got the wrong thread. Similar topic. Sorry!!!!

I've had about 40 chemicals I think. Three miscarriages and five live births. Shit happens. I didn't want five kids. I set out to have one. Still happy as a pig in shit mind.

I think the point the OP is trying to make is that 40 years ago, women didn’t have the option of early pregnancy testing - you had to have missed at least 1 period and the tests were done generally at the GPs, so in reality you could be 6/7/8 weeks pregnant by the time it was confirmed. Therefore, it’s likely that many early miscarriages happened before a woman even knew she was pregnant, and it would have generally been seen as a late period. I know I had a couple of late periods before I conceived in 1984. In hindsight, they may have been early miscarriages. At the time I remember being gutted at not being pregnant. When I had an actual miscarriage at 8 weeks in 1988, I was absolutely devastated. My response to each situation was different because of the information that was available to women at that time. I still think, and feel a bit sad, about the pregnancy I lost at the time of the year when the baby would have been born. I can’t ever recall the 2 occasions when I could have been pregnant and miscarried early.
Not knowing that I was probably pregnant saved me from a lot of heartache.

I agree. It has caused a lot of stress and obsession around early testing. All this line eyes stuff. Its ridiculous.

Well that’s strange - my DD was conceived in 1984 and my GP carried out a test after missing 1 period.

I had an early miscarriage. It was not just like a heavy period and I needed a scrape. It was unplanned but I found out just before I lost it and was pretty gutted. Also shocked at the callous and uncaring manor the nurses at hospital had for me. I was only 20.

I don't agree.

I have not used early tests yet, but it's good that the choice exists for women now.

I think pregnancy loss is upsetting at however many weeks.