How common are false negatives?

[JoyousViper]

Hey everyone,
me and my partner have very recently began to try for a baby (start of Sept) my period which was due mid sept never arrived and I’m now 3 weeks late. I have done countless pregnancy tests and they’ve all come back negative.
My periods are usually very regular and on time. I contacted the gp last week who just told me they won’t test any other way, I should just continue to buy over the counter tests. I visited the doctor today to discuss the whole situation and he told me that I can’t be pregnant, the tests are 100% accurate and he has prescribed me norethisterone to encourage a period.
After a quick search of this medication it’s quite clearly not suitable if there’s any possibility of a pregnancy therefore in my opinion it shouldn’t have been prescribed.
am I overreacting? I feel like every professional is telling me I can’t be pregnant so why have my periods stopped so suddenly? I’ve read that false negatives do happen but how small are the chances that this is one? Will it eventually show positive if I continue to test? Or am I definitely not pregnant and just blowing this whole thing out of proportion?!

You’re not pregnant. One false negative, maybe, but “countless”, no.

If your tests are negative, you’re not pregnant. If you were coming on saying you took one test and it was negative I’d be saying test again as there’s a minute chance it’s a false negative. But multiple negative tests are unheard of. Try again next month!

I'm sorry firstly as this sounds difficult and can absolutely see why you'd get your hopes up. As others have said though, multiple pregnancy tests wouldn't be negative if you were pregnant.

Have you recently come off birth control?

Did you come off hormonal contraception in Sept? That can really mess with your cycle. I agree that it's very unlikely you are pregnant with multiple negatives. I don't think I would take that medication either though, maybe your ovulation was delayed and you might still have gotten pregnant this cycle. I hope you are out of this limbo of waiting soon.

nope I haven’t been on any hormonal contraception for the last year almost. Thanks all for your help x

I personally don't think you're overreacting. I would have thought a simple blood test at the docs would have been done, before anything like that prescribed!

Same. Even if their advice was to "wait and see" surely that would be better than hormonal medication for a woman ttc.

Im sorry you had to go through this, those kind if medication will mess with your hormones, i suggest you see another doctor maybe a scan, look for an underlying issue rather than treating the symptoms. I would freak as well! Are you testing with the same brand?

Sorry but I think you’re overreacting. Your period is late because you’re stressed and paying attention to it. Of course a doctor won’t do any tests; people can’t get fertility tests or treatments after years of trying-you need to chill out and expect it’ll take a while.

If you were pregnant you would have got tons of positive tests by now.

I never test positive in the first 5-6 weeks maybe a bit more. It messes up my scans and midwives appointments but it has happened multiple times.

Is there anything else going on that could have delayed your period? Stress at work? Stress in life? Flu? Is TTC all consuming?

You could have experienced an early loss and your body is still working itself out which would explain the negative tests. Sometimes we just miss a period. If I were you I'd try and wait it out a few more weeks, I'd avoid the prescription. Let your body do what it needs to do, eat healthy and look after yourself in the meantime.

I don't want to get your hopes but my friend was in prenatal classes with someone who (allegedly) didn't find out they were pregnant until well into their second trimester because they never got a positive test, this was their second baby and they said they had the same issue the first time round. So supposedly it can happen but very very unusual and that's purely anecdotal, they might have just messed up the timing of the tests. Who knows 🤷‍♀️

Hey OP, I don't think you are over reacting, though as others say you may not be pregnant after multiple negatives. Iwould have thought the GP would have at least prescribed a blood test. Is there a way you can get one done privately? That should give you some indication hopefully. Then I'd wait and take care of body and mind . You may have entered a very long cycle though I probably wouldn't take the medication prescribed before knowing a bit more about hormone levels etc...

Highly, highly unlikely that you'd have multiple false negative urine tests over several weeks, but if you want total peace of mind, you can order an at home hCG blood test (Pregnancy Blood Test | Home hCG Test for Early Pregnancy Detection (medichecks.com) as an example but there are lots of providers).

Were you tracking ovulation and are you sure that you ovulated when you usually would in your cycle? If you ovulate late, your period will be later than usual.