Pregnancy/Motherhood groups are swarmed with the same "can you read this, I think I see a faint line" + photo question every single day because of the cheap tests. The strip results are NOT easy to interpret, because you may still see a faint line on the paper when not pregnant, and it's kind of an important emotional question as some couples have been trying to get pregnant for years. Your OB does you a mercy if they tell you "just buy the digital one".
I think you're right here. When you're emotionally invested in the result (you want to be pregnant, or you don't want to be), then a less than certain result can force you to agonise over whether you're doing it right, or trust your own senses.
A digital readout (assuming is pretty accurate) can remove this ambiguity.
The other benefit is for anyone who has difficulty with colour perception, or is in a poorly lit environment. I assume the device can read the stip in pure blackness leaving little enivornmental light to cause confusion.
But when it's all said and one, I bet this was created by the marketing department.
Well yes but the digital test does not give your better info. They translate a non binary result to a binary one.
What I did when "we" were doing these tests (got 2 types both paper stips, one high sensitivity and one of the cheapest one) simply compare a unused strip and the one with pee.
It's not hard and the manual in the ones I got were really good. Like color pictures and lots of examples.
I’d think these things have minimum standards they must meet and so the cheapest test is just as good as the more marketed (and more expensive) one. Am I missing something?
kind of an important emotional question as some couples have been trying to get pregnant for years
And for some just the opposite... like 19 year old me decades ago -- ambiguous test result, and no 24 hour drugstores at the time so led to a sleepless night for both of us until we could get a second test the next day. It was negative. Would have much rather had an unambiguous POS/NEG result.
If it was ambiguous, these digital tests may have told you it was negative even when it would be positive a day or two later. You might have slept better but it wouldn’t have been based on accurate data.
The second test had more clear instructions about "read results after X minutes, ignore any changes after that time". The electronic test wouldn't have had a visible line after 10 minutes that scares young college students when they think they can see the shadow of a second line if they hold it to the light the right way.
Perhaps there should be more examples of positive and negative readings in the paper test’s leaflet? Including photos like those that get posted on forums. I know this wouldn’t solve all cases but seems like it could be helpful for some.
Or given that a photo of a piece of paper is hard to interpret too, possibly the literature could include an actual piece of test strip to compare... possibly an untreated one, unless that changes how it looks.
