What if the second line is very faint

These misleading lines can appear in the results window as urine evaporates from the stick. It can be hard to determine whether a faint line is a positive result or an evaporation line.

The primary difference is that evaporation lines appear in the test window several minutes after the recommended time for checking the test results. The package will let you know when to check your test results, which can be within three to five minutes, depending on the manufacturer. If possible, wait two or three days before taking another one.

If you are pregnant, this gives your body additional time to produce more of the pregnancy hormone, which can result in a clear, undeniable positive line. It also helps to take the home pregnancy test first thing in the morning. The less diluted your urine, the better. Make sure you check the results within the appropriate time frame to avoid confusing an evaporation line with a positive line. Unfortunately, a faint positive line can also be a sign of a very early miscarriage, sometimes called a chemical pregnancy , which occurs within the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy, often much earlier.

If you take a home pregnancy test after a miscarriage , your test may reveal a faint positive line. You may experience bleeding that resembles your menstrual cycle and light cramping. Bleeding can occur around the time when you expect your next period, so you may never know of the early miscarriage.

But if you take a home pregnancy test while bleeding and the results show a faint positive line, you may have had a pregnancy loss. Early pregnancy losses are not uncommon and occur in about 50 to 75 percent of all miscarriages. These miscarriages are often due to abnormalities in a fertilized egg.

Many women eventually have healthy babies. Your doctor can take a urine or blood sample and more accurately determine whether a pregnancy has occurred. If you think you had a very early miscarriage, let your doctor know.

Read more: 5 signs you should take a pregnancy test ». All of them test your urine on a prepared strip. For some tests, you urinate directly onto the strip. For others, you pee in a cup and then either dip the test strip into the cup or use a dropper to place a sample of your urine on the test strip.

Results from a home pregnancy test may look like:. Read the package instructions carefully. They'll tell you exactly how to do the test and how to read the results. Most tests have a control line where you can check to see that you did the test correctly. If that control line is blank, then the test didn't work, and you'll want to do another one. The line on your pregnancy test may be difficult to read because it's barely visible.

A line that's supposed to be red may appear light pink, for example, and a line that should look blue if positive will be very light blue. Digital results will appear in words, so there are no faint lines to wonder about.

They will read "yes" or "no," or "pregnant" or "not pregnant. In an effort to read very early test results, or test results that are unclear, some women turn to pregnancy test tweaking.

This involves taking a photo of your home pregnancy test and editing it to see if you can detect the line that indicates pregnancy. There's no proof that this is reliable, but some women are giving it a try. A faint line on a pregnancy test probably means that it's very early in your pregnancy.

Even a faint positive pregnancy test indicates that you have some of the pregnancy hormone human Chorionic Gonadotropin hCG in your system. Your body starts producing hCG right after implantation.

If you have a typical day menstrual cycle, hCG may be detectable in your urine 12 to 15 days after ovulation if you're pregnant. The levels of hCG are very low at first and then they rise quickly, doubling every three days in early pregnancy. That's why you might have a faintly positive result at first and one that's crystal clear a few days later. Of course, if it's really too early, you may not even see a faint line. Instead you might get a negative result because your hCG levels aren't high enough to be detected.

The earlier you test, the higher the chances that you'll get a false negative test even if you're pregnant. If you see a faint line, the best thing to do is wait a few more days and take a home pregnancy test again.

By then your levels of hCG should rise enough to give you a clearly visible result. Another option is to ask your healthcare provider to confirm that you're pregnant with a blood test, which can usually detect pregnancy a few days earlier than a home pregnancy test.

HCG can be detected in the blood about 11 days after conception and in urine about 12 to 15 days after conception. If you saw a faint positive result and retested in a few days with a negative result or you got your period after testing positive , you may have experienced a chemical pregnancy or early miscarriage.

A chemical pregnancy means the egg was fertilized but didn't completely implant. So your body may have produced a little hCG but then stopped when the embryo stopped developing.

It's pretty rare, but there are reasons you might have hCG in your body and not be pregnant, giving you a false positive result on your pregnancy test:. BabyCenter's editorial team is committed to providing the most helpful and trustworthy pregnancy and parenting information in the world. When creating and updating content, we rely on credible sources: respected health organizations, professional groups of doctors and other experts, and published studies in peer-reviewed journals.

Only a doctor can work out whether a faint positive result is due to early pregnancy, medication, or a chemical pregnancy. But, if a person gets a faint positive test result while they are bleeding, or they have a period, it may indicate a chemical pregnancy. If a person suspects that they may be having a miscarriage or has questions about a faint positive pregnancy test, they should contact a doctor for advice.

If someone has left a pregnancy test for longer than advised, the urine on the stick begins to evaporate, which can cause the line to blur or look distorted. When taking a pregnancy test, it is essential that people read the instructions carefully. The instructions usually advise reading the results within a specific time after taking the test.

Learn more about evaporation lines here. Once fertilization of an egg has occurred, and it implants into the uterine wall, the body begins to produce hCG. Home pregnancy tests detect the amount of this hormone that is present in the urine.

Immediately after conception, the hCG levels are quite low. In a healthy pregnancy, the levels of the hormone should double every 2 to 3 days. While the line might be faint at the very beginning of pregnancy, as time goes on and the pregnancy advances, the line that the test produces should get darker and more apparent. A person who gets a faint positive home pregnancy test result should wait a few days and then repeat the test.

If the test is positive a second time, they should call their doctor and schedule an appointment. If the test is negative and the individual has had a period, it is likely that they had an early miscarriage or chemical pregnancy. A person should always call their doctor with questions about a faint positive pregnancy test or if they are concerned about a possible miscarriage.

Sometimes, people can experience some vaginal bleeding after having a faint positive pregnancy test. If the bleeding is light or similar to a period, they should call their doctor. If the bleeding is very heavy, for example, more than a pad or tampon in an hour, they should go to the emergency room immediately for a doctor to do an evaluation. A faint positive home pregnancy test result can mean several different things.

It often means that a person is pregnant, but there are several other outcomes.