Can an early pregnancy test strip still be used after it has expired for two months?

When menstruation is delayed and women suspect they are pregnant, they often use early pregnancy test strips to check whether they are pregnant. This test method is very simple and convenient, and the test accuracy is very high, so it is very popular among women. However, early pregnancy test strips also have a certain shelf life. If you find that the early pregnancy test strips you purchased have expired, do not use them again, because the test results will be inaccurate.

There are several reasons why early pregnancy test strips may misdetect:

1. The time of testing. HCG usually appears in the urine a few days after the fertilized egg implants, and it must reach a certain amount to be detected. Therefore, for women with normal menstruation, HCG can only be detected in the urine after the menstruation is delayed. Women with long menstrual cycles or abnormal ovulation can only be detected after 40-44 days of amenorrhea.

2. Some diseases and drugs may cause false positive results. Some tumor cells, such as hydatidiform mole, choriocarcinoma, bronchial carcinoma and renal cancer, can also secrete HCG.

3. Do not use expired test strips. Because chemical reagents lose their effectiveness over time, pay attention to the production date when purchasing.

4. Do not use test paper that has been damp.

5. When women of childbearing age experience early pregnancy symptoms such as amenorrhea, they cannot determine whether they are pregnant based on a single pregnancy test. The most reliable way is to undergo a comprehensive examination, especially for those with weak positive results, including HCG blood test, HCG urine test and B-ultrasound examination. So that action can be taken as soon as possible.

6. After three months of pregnancy, the HCG level will drop. If you use an early pregnancy test at this time, it may be negative or weakly positive.

It can be seen from this that if the early pregnancy test paper is expired, it should not be used again, because the results of such test paper are inaccurate. In fact, early pregnancy test strips are very cheap, only one or two dollars, so once the early pregnancy test strips expire, you can just buy some more. It won’t cost you too much money, so don’t worry about it.