Ok, so I'm stood in the chemist looking at all the different brands of test. Which one do I pick. One test packs, 2 tests, cheap, more pricey?
Cheap won, and I purchesed the Boots pregnancy test, 2 tests pack for a cheapo £7.99. some tests ranged up to double this cost!
The instructions on the back of the box could not be simpler, hold absorbant tip in your urine stream for 5 seconds, you can test at any time of the day too.
For the impatient amongst us the test result is back in 1 minute - wow super fast! Lets face it, 5 minutes is a long time to know the result of this little test!
So the simple, fast cheapo test won and was purchased, taken home and pee'd on!
Now the back of the box shows 2 pictures to help you decide the result. There are 2 windows, a square window and an oval one. The oval windows purpose is to show the test has not worked. So a vertical blue line means it worked and an empty wondow means its not worked at all.
The square window is the am I or aren't I window. A pure horizontal lines means no and a '+' sign means yes.
Ok, so I've waited a minute, look at the test, compare the windows and I'm left still thinking 'am I or aren't I', There seems to be a plus, but the line making the plus is so faint I'm wondering whether I'm seeing what I want to see rather than reality.
Ok, so abandon the short form instructions on the box, lets turn to the double sided paper instructions in the box.
Ok, so this goes into more detail. It explains that it doesn't matter how faint the '+' is. A pregnant + can be one of 3 +'s.
1. The vertical line can be bolder than the horizontal line, the horizontal line being quite faint 2. there can be fairly even boldness of horizontal and vertical lines, ie making a proper + 3. The horizontal line can be bold and the vertical line can be faint.
There are 3 pictures showing you all the alternatives.
The literature explains scenario 1 above may occur if you are pregnant and testing a few days after your due period date, as the hGC (explained below) levels will be higher, scenario 2 occurs if you are testing roughly the day you are due, and the last scenario occurs it simply says this still denotes a pregnant result!
So I am still having doubts despite the apparent reassurance in the literature but the tests are said to be 99% accurate so I took it as a positive and started celebrating! Particulary after getting the husband to double check I wasn't going mad and seeing a faint line because thats what I wanted to see!
Now for the science bit! The test is said to work by detecting the pregnancy hormone hCG (human Chorionic Gonadotrophin) a hormone produced when you are pregnant. If you are on fertility drugs and they contain this then the test can give a false positive.
Ok, so despite being initially concerned by the faintness of the + I have decided it is accurate and better still was cheap. I think If I was buying another test I would buy the one I used for my first pregnancy (see my other review) as I didn't have to scratch my head for long and read miniscule details on the detailed literature. However, this is still a good test but I think I would rather have a test which gives me absolute certainty as soon as i look at it! (Yes, I am one fo those impatient ones when it comes to this test)!
Good luck to everyone using this test, hope you get the result you want, either way.
Pictures of Boots Pregnancy Test Kit
Boots pregnancy Test
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Your experience was the same as mine and i'm not sure either. but it's cheep and you only do the test when you think you already know the answer anyway.
saraha007 25.02.2005 08:21
Congratulations! Its reasurring to know that alot of these tests are now 99% accurate. I shall bear this one in mind as i am currently trying for a baby so it could come in useful soon. Sarah
HotBabes 17.01.2005 21:56
Aaahhh Congratulations! even if you did tear your hair out trying to work out the result! :-)
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