The introduction of home pregnancy kits has made it more convenient and easier for women to confirm their pregnancy status. In order for a woman to be considered pregnant, she must have a fertilized egg attached to her uterine lining. When this attachment happens, the placenta begins to release the glycoprotein hormone called the human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG).

HCG concentration in the pregnant woman’s body increases as her pregnancy progresses. This increase in HCG concentration is what makes it possible for a woman to determine whether she is pregnant or not. Reason being, the pregnancy test kit looks for traces of hCG in urine. However, how to read the home pregnancy test results to know if you are pregnant or not?

One Line or Two Lines in Pregnancy Test

When using a pregnancy test kit, you have to either hold the test strip against a stream of urine or dip the test strip in urine to test whether one is expectant or not. If the test shows a single pink line, it means that the test is negative and the woman in question is not pregnant. However, if the test shows two adjacent pink lines, the test is positive and the woman is pregnant.

While this is a very simple test, there are times where you only see a faint pink second line after carrying out the pregnancy test. Appearance of this faint line tends to cause confusion but it can to a large extent indicate that the test came out positive.

In case the pregnancy test comes out negative, you will not see a pink line in the test window. There are times where the strip is invalid and in such a case, the control line might be invisible and you will not see any visible bands. In such a case, you need to re-take the pregnancy test.

Watch a video to learn tips when doing home pregnancy test: