Clear Blue digital tests - how reliable?

[BeckyP321]

I’m currently on my second pregnancy (after miscarrying the first) and because I have not had a period in between, I’m not able to accurately date how many weeks I am.

Because I have monitored my BBT, it looks like I ovulated just over 3 weeks ago, so I guess I would be 5 weeks along. I did a Clear Blue digital test expecting it to say 3+ weeks but it came back saying 1-2 weeks. Now i’m really confused! I have had no pregnancy symptoms either so starting to wonder whether I am pregnant or it’s something left over from MC.

Any thoughts?

@BeckyP321 they aren't too accurate and women's HCG levels vary so much. Did you do it with FMU? And were you up in the night for a wee? Or had you drank a lot of fluid previously? Concentration and timing have an impact.

@Newbie21 Hiya, I didn’t use FMU - it was actually about 6:30pm that I did it, so quite late. Maybe I should have waited until morning. I guess concentration would have been a bit higher then. So annoyed i’m not patient enough to wait :)

They're not overly reliable anyway. They are correct for some women but not all

Clear blue say 1-2 weeks and then when you read the instructions it says that they date it as 1-2 weeks but a medical practitioner would date it as 3-4 weeks. The latter being from the first day of your last period. So basically I would t worry. I only know this as we did the same. Came up positive 1-2 I panicked and then read the instructions properly. Congrats.

You need to use FMU for the weeks indicators to be in any way reliable. Mine were pretty spot on apart from when I had a MMC, then they never progressed beyond 2-3 weeks.

Also I have friend who test on Monday and it was 1-3 and by the end of the week it was 4 weeks + (or whatever the max is) so Echo that they’re not that reliable for anything other than being pregnant

The number of weeks is a marketing thing rather than an accurate description of a pregnancy's progression. But of course you’re so anxious in early pregnancy that it’s hard not to worry if it’s not what you expect

@BeckyP321 doing it that late in the day would definitely have an impact. But please do not put much emphasis on them, they really don't work for all.

I have to say that they've always been accurate for me in predicting a pregnancy that wasn't progressing - 5 losses and clearblue have always not moved from 1/2wks to 2/3wks to 3wks when expected to