Original email for context: All HCG should test as a positive on a pregnancy test, well this one does not. I’ve been communicating with them and all they have been doing is giving me excuses as to why it’s not testing positive. The pharmacist knows nothing about it testing positive on a pregnancy test?
Hello! I do understand the concern. When I was starting hCG, my number one concern was indeed being sure that it’s real.
I no longer recommend pregnancy testing because it’s not reliable and she has a VERY good reason why detailed in this post here: https://hcgchica.com/an-important-message-to-my-readers-about-real-prescription-hcg
That story and the following are not excuses, but real info I would like to share with you.
In a nutshell, yes the small dose of hCG we use CAN turn positive on a pregnancy test. I have tested many many vials of hCG myself this way in the past 7 years. I had been told before this was not possible and I was like, um DUH you can’t say that to me because I have a youtube video showing me do it on camera! So yes, of course, you can.
Here’s the problem I ran into though that made me realize that while it can, there’s a number of reasons it may not, which have nothing to do with the realness of the hCG itself, and it caused more problems than good.
When I used to recommend people do this, I started to run into many problems with people not getting vials to test positive and such and freaking out that it wasn’t real, when I knew it was really coming from those companies because I had even been to the pharmacies and tested many vials from those companies myself. In the U.S. ALL batches of hCG made in compounding pharmacies are regulated and legally required to be potency tested. Every single batch. So the potency cannot be under a certain level or the whole batch is legally required to be destroyed.
So at first, I couldn’t figure out what was going on since I had never had a vial of hCG NOT test positive (like, never). Although to be clear, the darkness or lightness of that 2nd line indicating “pregnant” always varied – and my final round of hCG my vial test quite light on the pregnancy stick, however that was the round I had the least hunger I’d ever had, so the hCG was doing it’s job in that respect.
Finally after the whole experience in the story that I linked you to above, where a woman tested her vials several times and it was negative, I had the woman overnight her vials of hCG to me- because it was like a weekend or something and summer, I received the vials in the mail, lukewarm. They have obviously not been kept cold for at least a day or maybe 2. I opened the box on camera and tested the vials on camera. I tested the vials on like 3-4 pregnancy tests. They were ALL positive. When I showed this to the lady she just couldn’t figure it out what could have happened.
So here’s how it is, and why pregnancy tests are NOT a reliable way to test the realness of hCG:
- Not enough hCG to test with: Pregnancy tests are designed for testing the urine of pregnant women with many more iu’s than the amount we test with – typically when we test, we don’t want to waste too much our hCG since that means less days on the diet for us, so we may only test like 150-200, maybe 250ius max. Sometimes this just isn’t enough if you don’t have the right technique, because the pregnancy tests were not designed to be that sensitive.
- Faulty/old tests: the lady who tested her vials several times that got the negative result, bought the same brand tests at the same store. Obviously, she ended up getting a faulty or set of tests, since my own tests yielded a positive result. The affordable cheap pregnancy tests are the dollar store (I kick myself- I’m the one who recommended this back then!) and they can easily be old or faulty- which is why they are likely there.
- User error. Now I already know what you’re going to say- I had one gal even get a bit testy with me because she said she is a nurse so of COURSE she knows how to test hCG on a pregnancy test. Well…maybe, in this case, it was a faulty test, not sure. But later she was able to get it to test positive when she tried again.
So remember, yes, hCG can test positive on a pregnancy test. However, there are several ways that could easily cause it NOT to, even when it’s real regular potency hCG. So, it’s not reliable.
So what to do? How do we be sure of what we’re getting? Because of course, the concern is still there.
I focus now on providing you proof that the hCG you are getting is coming from U.S. compounding pharmacies. You don’t go to the doctor or the pharmacy and question if the medication is real, do you? So these days, the hCG sources listed on my blog, you will see that the hCG vials you get do come from compounding pharmacies that have a label on the vial containing details like the pharmacy name, the number, the address, etc. So it’s legit guys!
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Oh last thing- sometimes we get people thinking that their URINE should test positive for hCG when they are taking the hCG hormone. This isn’t true. When we test hCG on a pregnancy test, what we mean is the actual hCG from the vial, we are squirting that directly onto the test strip. It’s extremely unlikely your urine would test positive for hCG on these very tiny dosages. I have heard in a few very rare cases someone’s urine testing positive for hCG, but this is very very uncommon. So don’t even bother trying it that way!
