Topic Tuesday: My period is two weeks late, but my pregnancy test is negative.

My period is two weeks late, but my pregnancy test is negative. Could I still be pregnant?

Great question – it is sometimes frustrating to determine if you could be pregnant, and if you aren’t, why your period might be late! The simple answer is yes, you could still be pregnant even with a negative test, depending on when you took it, but there are also other reasons your period could be late.

A pregnancy test detects HCG levels in your urine which increase the longer you are pregnant. If you took a pregnancy test before your missed period or within the first couple days after, it is possible there wouldn’t be enough HCG in your urine yet to detect the pregnancy. You could also get a false negative if you tested later in the day, rather than with your first-morning urine, especially very early in pregnancy, since there wouldn’t be as much HCG in your urine yet.

You are most likely to get pregnant about 14 days after the start of your last period – this is the typical time women ovulate in their cycle. It is extremely important to remember that this varies from woman to woman and even from month to month. If you happened to ovulate later than expected, or if you did get pregnant closer to your expected period than what is typical, the pregnancy wouldn’t be far enough along to show up on a test yet if you tested right around your missed period.

Why else could your period be late other than pregnancy?

• You ovulated later in the month than usual which caused your period to come later as well
• Birth control
• Hormonal changes
• Stress
• Weight Loss or Gain

If you got a negative pregnancy test, but still haven’t started your period, we recommend you test again about 5 days later and first thing in the morning or make an appointment to have a pregnancy test done in our office.

Have additional questions or need to make an appointment? Call (877) 883.7264 or go to www.fpawomenshealth.com to book an appointment online.