If you’ve had a diagnosis of miscarriage or abortion, you may be confused if you take a pregnancy test and it comes back positive again. What to do next? There are various sizes and models of pregnancy tests, and even modern ones are not perfect. False-positive pregnancy tests occur rarely; the chances are approximately 1%. However, even if it happens to you, there are a few possible scenarios, so don’t panic.
How Do Pregnancy Tests Work?
You already know that after the conceiving process, your body produces hormones and releases hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin). Every pregnancy test is based on detecting a small amount of that hormone from your urine or blood in the early pregnancy. As pregnancy progresses, the quantity of that hormone increases. However, when the fetus stops growing and developing due to abortion or miscarriage, the hCG hormone can’t disappear from your body right away. Instead, it takes days or even weeks for the hormone to decrease and get back down to zero, depending on how far along the pregnancy was. This is the main explanation for positive pregnancy tests after abortion, and for the pregnancy symptoms you can experience even if you’ve had an abortion.
False-Positive Pregnancy Test Results
False-positive pregnancy test results can occur when your test detects hCG hormone by showing those two lines or a plus, which means you are pregnant, but pregnancy does not exist. Here is what can happen:
- After having a miscarriage or abortion, as we already said, the hCG hormone can not disappear from your body immediately. These home tests are made for detecting a small quantity of this pregnancy hormone, even if you are not pregnant anymore. It takes time for your body to get back to normal.
- Medications can affect your pregnancy test. For example, some fertility treatments include therapy with the hCG hormone to stimulate releasing mature eggs within a woman’s ovary. If you take a pregnancy test 7-14 days after that therapy, there is a chance of a false-positive test.
Positive Pregnancy Test After Abortion
You’ve had miscarriage or abortion, using an abortion pill or a surgical procedure a few weeks ago, and you still have your pregnancy test positive. In this case, you should consult your health provider, who will indeed check out the hCG level in your blood and urine. If your blood pregnancy test comes back positive, these are your options:
- Incomplete Miscarriage
In this specific case, there is still some pregnancy tissue leftover in your uterus. However, it doesn’t mean your pregnancy is continuing or is viable. Instead, it could mean that you’ll need another minor surgical procedure called D&C (Dilation and Curettage) to remove products of conception, which are mostly small pieces of placenta. Your body would probably deal with it for some time, but it will stop bleeding sooner with the surgical procedure.
- Pregnant Again
If you wanted to know, can you be pregnant again after the abortion, the answer is definitely yes. If you have been sexually active after miscarriage or abortion without using any contraception method, you can be pregnant again. Many women don’t actually know this, but they can become pregnant during the first cycle after this procedure. Just remember, if you are not trying to become pregnant right after that, you should use contraception to prevent it, even if you might hear some stories about how abortion can affect your future pregnancies. It’s not true- surgical or medical abortion can not affect your fertility.
Time Frame for the hCG Hormone to Return to Normal
Everybody is completely different, and things like this are highly individual. Still, it takes on average 12-16 days, but doctors say that you may wait about 4-5 weeks before you do another pregnancy test. So it won’t disappear right away, but its quantity will decrease. Usually, it’s normal for the hCG hormone to reduce by 50% within 24 hours. If you’ve had a chemical pregnancy, an early pregnancy loss, it will take about a week for your body to recover.
What Is the Next Step?
Experiencing the abortion procedure is already stressful for you and your family. A combination of fear, guilt, and sadness with a still positive pregnancy test can mentally destroy you. But there is nothing wrong with you. If you have a positive pregnancy test after abortion, you can always talk with your health provider and ask for advice from nurses from post surgical abortion care. Also, feel free to book an appointment or call the abortion clinic Fort Lauderdale.
