Any serial POAS-ers? Should dark lines keep getting darker or do they max out?

[Missmidden]

Hopefully I am being silly here, but having m/c at 6 wks in September I am being really paranoid! I am 5+4 and have used a lot of HPTs over the last 10 days and the lines have kept getting darker every other day with both Clear Blue Plus and IC sticks. I also got a 3 wks + within a minute on a CBD yesterday.

However I only have ICs now and this morning's line was identical to the one 2 days ago, and about the same as the control line. Does anyone have any experience of using HPTs for so long and should lines keep getting darker or do they eventually max out?

They not only eventually max - out, as there is only so much dye in them. But also at around the 8 week mark you can end up with a false negative test due to what is called the "hook effect" where there is so much hcg that the test malfunctions or overloads and produces a false negative.

I can understand about the concern regarding miscarriage, but please don't drive yourself mad with repeated testing. 1 or more lighter tests or same darkness tests mean nothing, could be less dye in the test, weaker pee sample or what ever. You need to stop testing soon, or you will drive yourself crazy as the tests max out.

Try to relax take one day at a time and plan for a scan at around 8 weeks if you can.

Thanks, Willitbe, I appreciate your reassurance and sound advice. I actually have a scan a week today (the m/c was after IVF so am under a consultant already) so it's not long to wait, or wouldn't be if every day didn't feel like a week at the moment!

Cheapies don't tend to get much darker than the control line. Plus, as has been mentioned, there is the hook effect so they will get lighter in time.

FRERs DO get darker than the control line but even they succumb to the hook effect eventually. FRERs are quite amusing as the dye gets sucked from the control line, leading to a much darker test line than a control line.

But really, once you're beyond a certain darkness (close to control line) it's impossible to perceive anything and every test has a different hook effect level and it doesn't tell you anything at all. If you really want to know how things are going, your scan is the only thing of any use. By that point the tests will have been useless for close to a week for showing progression, even beta blood tests are not reliable as doubling times vary once you're over a few thousand.

Sounds like all is going well in terms of HCG anyway from past experience (6 pregnancies that have gone past 8 weeks!) Good luck at the scan!

Agree with all of the above but wanted to let you know not to worry about CB digi tests if ever you use one again and get less weeks than the last one. they are notoriously inaccurate with 2 tests from the same box being known to give different results! was certainly the case with me, had a right panic till I did some reading. And all is good here!

mine started getting lighter at about 8 weeks(god knows why I was still doing them).
think its because I couldn't relax until my scan.
that's when I stopped poas.
im now 38+4 weeks so it can happen.