QuestionI have been experiencing pregnancy symptoms for about a month now. I had my last "normal" period in October, and every since then I have seemed to develop this mean and hateful demeanor towards my husband. He said I was being mean and hateful. I was diagnosed with ovarian cyst back in late 2001, if my memory serves me correctly. I have had pain, tenderness, soreness, and itching on my breast. I have had a, for me, very light period, extremely light with some clots. I have had some of the strangest cravings I have ever had in my life, pickles and icecream, to name the least. I have had urine and blood pregnancy tests which were both negative. My only concern is that after speaking with a friend of mine, I was informed that since I have problems with ovarian cyst, it can cause my test to read negative falsely. I have all the symptoms down to the undying urge for sex, crying uncontrollably, and mood swings like no other. This same friend was told by the ultrasound technician that she was further along than she taught and i was with her when she took the first urine and blood test which read negative in both cases. She was almost a month further along. I need to know how long do I wait to be retested and also, with my last pregnancy out of the three children i have, i was nearly 3 months along before the test showed positive with him. What do I do? What are the values on the blood pregnancy test, before it's considered positive? Thank you for your help. Kameka
AnswerDear Kameka,
The situations you describe are unusual. Ovarian cyst sufferers tend to struggles with problems with consistent ovulation, and thus fertility, but hCG is the hormone that is tested in pregnancy and that hormone is not present in high enough amounts (>5mIU/mL) unless pregnant. There are some studies that suggest a higher incidence of miscarriage in PCOS women, for "unknown reasons". I suppose it could be due to an inability of the forming placenta and embryo to produce enough of the pregnancy hormones to sustain the pregnancy - thus negative tests early on which you indicate, and some eventual miscarriages in the studies, if the process doesn't get kick-started.
However, as I said, most often the hormone either exists in a "pregnant" amount or it doesn't. Most urine pregnancy tests will pick up the hormone at a level of 25-50 mIU/mL, the lowest I've seen being 20 mIU/mL. A qualitative blood test will only indicate whether you are pregnant or not - yes or no. A quantitative blood test (serum beta hCG) will measure the amount of hCG in your blood. It can measure amounts ranging from 5 mIU/mL to 2,000,000 mIU/mL or more. Anything over 5 mIU/mL is considered a pregnant amount.
I hope this information helps you and answers your questions. And I hope your symptoms improve!! :-)
Brenda
