I recently had experience with the faulty pregnancy test. When you Google® the topic, you realize there are many people who experience false negatives but false positives are very hard to come by. Generally speaking, when a test reads positive, and then later negative, it means one of two things: you were pregnant and lost the baby or are on your way of losing the baby, or, the test was not administered correctly. The latter case is very, very rare and even rarer, is the false positive just because the test is broken. It is very easy to create these tests and even easier to create one that works. The tests on the market are almost all 99% or more effective which means there is less than a 1% chance of error – usually, this 1% error involves false negatives. That is, out of approximately 100 women who take the test, 1% or 1 woman has a chance of seeing a negative and then finding out later, she is really pregnant. The chances of getting a false positive are even less! Now, with the statistics and the test information out of the way, here is why I am posting this blog.
Currently, I am almost ten months post-partum and still nursing my infant daughter so getting pregnant was the furthest thing on my mind. Sure, I would love to have another child but not when my daughter is 18 months old. Perhaps after she is 2, she can appreciate the excitement and intricacies of being a sibling. For now, I want her to enjoy breastfeeding and being spoiled rotten which as a first born child, is your birth right.
Well, after a lot of travel and stress, I am now approximately six weeks without a cycle. So, I started to panic. All the other cycles since four months post-partum have been pretty predictable – 28 to 32 days with a decrease in milk for one week prior to starting to cycle. So, when I started to see declining milk over three weeks ago, I assumed the time was near. Now, three weeks later, I started to get nervous. So, yesterday I took a pregnancy test. I had the kit at home – I got it for free. My parents who always look for good deals on all sorts of weird stuff they do not need got these Confirm Clearly pregnancy tests and refills with this awesome clear reader. They even got a gift card for the purchase price at Rite-Aid to buy this back in January of 2007 or so. This reader is pretty cool – it gives you a lighted + or a – and if the test malfunctioned, gives you the red lighted symbol for caution- trouble! It looked simple enough. I took the test and came down at 945pm to show my husband the exciting yet puzzling news: “We’re pregnant, again!?!” After a little anxiety and disbelief, I started growing warm to the idea of another baby, a sibling, a buddy and playmate for our daughter. I was starting to get excited and started to daydream a little. But something was puzzling me about this test. I do not know anything about the company. Is it accurate? What ….? My investigator hat was now on.
So, after I put my daughter to sleep, I snuck away and researched the internet. You guessed it! This test had been recalled not once or twice but many times. There were numerous consumer complaints against this company and this brand of test. In sum, this Confirm Clearly test was not to be trusted and should be disposed of immediately! A lady who had numerous experiences with the same test who also received rebates from Rite-Aid on it has an entire website dedicated to sharing experiences about this test and how it gives false positives to women across America. One woman even claimed she ran the test through the tap water and it popped positive. A man peed on the stick for giggles and he too was preggers. And if you can believe it, a couple had their dog urinate on the stick – you guessed it! The dog too was pregnant. Now, I am no expert, but after reading this, I knew something was wrong. I whispered to my husband that he should not get excited and that it could be a false positive. He murmured something and went back to sleep.
The next day I went and purchased the test I trusted twice before – the First Response. Within seconds of dipping it in the cup, you guessed it! Negative- not pregnant. I did not know what to think. I guess I must have been disappointed because I was feeling a little sad - interesting discovery about myself. I must want to have more children. Needless to say, I cannot imagine being the couple, trying for years to get pregnant – test after test, no pregnancy. They buy the Confirm Clearly test and boom! They get the + sign. They are pregnant. Overjoyed, they tell family and anyone who knew of their attempts at fertility. This is a true story I fear. Five days later, at her OB appointment, she learns that she was NEVER pregnant to begin with- the test gave her a false positive. What?! She tried it again, another positive. She uses a refill, a negative; then, another positive. Their story was related on the website too.
Thanks to the internet, otherwise hopeful parents can rest easy and get all the facts before it is too late. I am amazed that the FDA does not regulate these tests more or other medical testing equipment for that matter. I mean, any Tom, Dick, and Harry can introduce a pregnancy test on the market for $5.00, appealing to the consumer who has just paid $4.00 a gallon on gas and a $4.50 for a gallon of milk but really? How can a company get away with this? I think of the couple who was trying to conceive who really received a BIG surprise – yeah, come to think of it – you’re not pregnant… sorry. It is a horrible thing and unlike the unfortunate closure a couple may be able to receive after a miscarriage or preparation of a high risk pregnancy, this is just an emotional roller coaster which no one really volunteered to get on. Confirm Clearly is offering refunds to people who purchased these tests but I do not know if that is enough for those folks who used this test, trusted it, and then got swindled – not out of just money but rather their hopes and dreams. In a consumer-driven market, every once in a while, I can understand making a mistake on your product but how hard it is to produce a pregnancy test? Are these tests made in China too? How many corners did this company cut to have all of their tests from 2006 to 2007 which were sold to unsuspecting, hopeful parents recalled for error? I am shocked but not surprised by this recent experience. ‘Til next time, to all you hopeful parents out there, remember the phrase I learned in the eighth grade: Caveat Emptor! And … sometimes, you do get what you pay for or in my case, what I didn’t pay for. :-)
Check out this webpage which I enjoyed thoroughly about this pregnancy test:
http://www.tammysrecipes.com/confirm_clearly_pregnancy_test
And there are plenty out there but this one too:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/159325/a_review_of_confirm_clearly_the_most.html
