We don’t mean to alarm you. But, if you’ve taken an at-home pregnancy test lately and discovered you are not pregnant…you might want to get a second opinion.
While we all know the most accurate way to determine if a pregnancy is to make a visit to a GP, the first point of call for most women is generally an at-home pregnancy test. And with some at-home test claiming to be 99% accurate, most of us would trust a negative reading and go about our lives, not pregnant. But what are the chances the reading is wrong?
As reported by News.com.au, four in ten pregnancy tests on the Australian market have failed or have voluntarily withdrawn from the market, after testing by The Theraputic Goods Administration (TGA).
The TGA’s investigation came after family planning clinic reported three false negative results by the of the One Step HCG urine pregnancy test. The watchdog tested the specific model, found it to be inaccurate and it was recalled.
“This model was tested by the TGA, shown to be insensitive, recalled and cancelled from the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG),” said the TGA in a report.
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The TGA then went on to test all 38 devices on the market, however nine manufactures voluntarily pulled their product off shelves.
After testing the remaining 27 products, the TGA found issues with a further five self-test kits.
“The five devices that failed have been subjected to a range of regulatory actions,” said the TGA.
While the faulty products have been taken off the market, the TGA reassures us the remaining pregnancy tests were proven to be reliable and in working order.
“All devices remaining on the market in Australia have been shown to work reliably and accurately,” it said.
The at-home pregnancy kits which failed the TGA’s testing:
For more information, visit the TGA website.
