False Negative Pregnancy Test With Mirena?
A long term birth control option, Mirena is popular with women who want to space out their pregnancies or avoid becoming pregnant without actually having to undergo a tubal ligation. This brand of IUD has proven to be more 99 percent effective and has demonstrated no long lasting ill side effects found with other forms of birth control, including bleeding, infection, or extreme weight gain. However, women who use Mirena and feel like they may be pregnant may wonder if their IUD is causing them to get a false negative result when they take an over-the-counter pregnancy test. Doctors insist that Mirena does not cause false negative test results, however, and in most cases prevents pregnancy from occurring in the first place.
In fact, studies have shown that Mirena does not inhibit or mask the presence of hCG in the bloodstream. If a woman has this IUD and believes she is pregnant, yet gets a negative test result, it more than likely can be assumed that she is not pregnant at all. Even in the unlikely event that she is pregnant while using Mirena, she may be testing too early to get an accurate test result. If she is very early on in the pregnancy, particularly before six or seven weeks, she may not have enough hCG in her urine for the test to detect with accuracy.
Because this IUD’s chemical makeup does not compromise the presence of the pregnancy hormone in a woman’s body, a woman who keeps getting a negative test result, but feels that she is pregnant may also be testing at the wrong time of day. Ideally, over-the-counter tests should be taken first thing in the morning. This first morning urine is considered to be of higher quality and will contain more hCG if a woman is indeed pregnant.
Can You Get A False Negative Pregnancy Test With Mirena?
When asked if it is possible to get a negative pregnancy test result while using Mirena, gynecologists confirm that such a scenario would be nearly impossible. In fact, women who are using this IUD and think that they are pregnant may actually be experiencing the side effects of the birth control itself, which can in fact mimic pregnancy. This birth control can cause a woman to feel nauseated, have tender breasts, and feel bloated or like they have put on weight. These symptoms occur because of the amount of pregnancy preventative chemicals being released into her bloodstream, however.
Designed to last for five years, Mirena could become less effective as it nears its expiration date. In this event, it is possible that a woman could become pregnant, particularly if she is only a few weeks away from needing to have her IUD replaced with a new one. Even so, when she takes a pregnancy test, she should get a positive result if she were truly pregnant. If she gets a negative result, it cannot be linked necessarily to her Mirena device. With that, she may consider what other reasons could cause her to be getting a negative result.
One reason that could explain why she is getting a false negative includes the quality of her urine. If she is testing later in the afternoon or evening, she may have diluted urine or urine that contains too much caffeine and other chemicals that could compromise the test. Likewise, if she is taking certain medications, including some kinds of antibiotics, she may not get an accurate reading. Women who believe that they are pregnant, yet have the Mirena device implanted in them should confirm pregnancy by going to their doctor’s office and requesting a blood test that can confirm or deny the presence of hCG in their blood.
False Negative Pregnancy Test With Mirena After Removal?
After a woman gets her Mirena device removed, she may experience what is known as “Mirena crash.” Doctors give this nickname to a series of symptoms that cause women to think that they are pregnant within a month or two after they have their devices removed. In fact, most women have normal periods within days of Mirena’s removal, indicative that their normal fertility levels are once again resuming in their bodies.
With the return of their normal fertility, it is entirely possible that women can get pregnant. However, when they think that they are pregnant, yet get false negative results, they may wonder if their Mirena removal has anything to do with their pregnancy like symptoms. Mirena’s removal can in fact cause a series of physical symptoms like nausea, bloating, sore breasts, and even stomach fluttering, which would lead any woman to assume that she has gotten pregnant immediately after having her IUD removed.
In many cases, all of these symptoms are related to the flurry of hormones trying to equalize themselves in a woman’s body. As her body goes back to its normal functioning, she may feel queasy, have sore breasts, and experience all of the other symptoms that are indicative of early pregnancy. However, when she takes a test, she may be confused about why it reads negative instead of positive. In other cases, a woman may genuinely be pregnant, but still be unable to get an accurate reading because of the presence of birth control hormones in her bloodstream. In this case, she may need to go to the doctor and have a blood test done to confirm whether or not she is pregnant.