Pregnancy Tests: Evaporation Lines

An early pregnancy test can help determine pregnancy as soon as several days before a woman’s expected period. Usually, a non-digital pregnancy test works by the appearance of two lines, a test line and a control line, on a white band. These lines are usually pink or blue. If two lines appear, despite how light or dark the test line may be, a woman can usually assume that this indicative of pregnancy. This, however, is not always the case.

Evaporation lines
In order for a pregnancy test to be read as positive, the test line should be the same color as the control line, however, it may be much lighter than the control line. For example, a test can still be read as positive if the control line is dark pink and the test line is faint pink. Another type of line, however, tends to crop up on negative pregnancy tests, often giving women false hope or causing unnecessary worry; evaporation lines.

An evaporation line on a pregnancy test is a colorless line that appears on a pregnancy test as the result of the drying of the liquid on the strip. Sometimes these lines appear as a different shade of white, gray or purple. Evaporation lines can appear quite quickly, or may not appear for quite some time after the test was begun. Not every used pregnancy test will develop an evaporation line, however, some do and these lines can be confusing. Evaporation lines can appear quite darker, as shown in the evaporation line gallery at My Fertility Awareness, making them difficult to interpret, especially to the untrained eye.

Causes of evaporation lines
Evaporation lines are more commonly seen when a pregnancy test is read outside of the allowable time limit. Every pregnancy test contains instructions regarding how soon results should be read, as well as how long the results are accurate for. Results after this maximum time allowance should be disregarded and a new test should be performed. Additionally, the chemistry of the woman’s urine may cause an evaporation line as some women seem to experience these lines more than others.

Confirming an evaporation line
If an evaporation line is suspected the best way to confirm whether or not it was an evaporation line is by retesting and ensuring that the test is read within the recommended time frame. Additionally, re-testing with a different brand or a digital pregnancy test may offer clearer results. If you are still uncertain after retesting, wait a couple of days and test again. If you are indeed pregnant, a pregnancy test should show up clearly colored within a few days of the suspected evaporation line. If you are not pregnant, the line will not change in color, but may change in intensity.

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