Inside First Response Digital Pregnancy

What to expect if you've opened a First Response Digital Pregnancy Test (more pictures at bottom of page)

Faint second line revealed once the First Response case was opened with a negative result -no 

Let me start by saying that digital pregnancy test do not work like traditional pregnancy tests. They are read optically, which means by using lights attached to a little computer system. They don't have to follow the same "quality controls" that traditional pregnancy test do. This is because they aren't supposed to be interpreted by the human eye, but rather an algorithm that triggers the digital results. Due to this, their tests strips don't exclude the many other types of hCG our bodies can make in trace amounts. There are many forms of hCG, not limited to intact hCG, free subunits, pituitary and degraded forms. Not all of these forms are used to detect pregnancy, and some of them can normally be found in trace amounts in the urine at any given time. This is why it's not unusual to open a First Response Digital test and see a second line, even with a negative result.

To clarify; a regular pregnancy tests works by picking up intact hCG in the urine, this intact hCG (if present) will bind with molecules in the strip and be caught by the test line. If no intact hCG is present no binding happens, and no positive line is formed. These test strips are made to only bind with intact hCG with certain cutoff limits. Cutoff limit means sensitivity, most urine pregnancy tests have a sensitivity of 25miu, meaning once there is 25miu of hCG in your urine you will develop a clearly positive line on your test. 

Lower levels of hCG won't trigger a line to develop on regular pregnancy test within the time limit. For instance, if you test before your expected period and have 10miu of hCG in your urine it's very unlikely any pregnancy test will show positive within the read time. 

What does any of this have to do with a digital pregnancy test? As mentioned, they aren't manufactured with the same strict controls in mind. They can and will pick up any type and any level of hCG in the urine, and it won't matter because unless the test line reaches the right intensity it won't trigger a positive test result. As an example, a woman might have 5miu of free hCG in her urine, but not be pregnant, and the test strip inside a First Response Digital Pregnancy test will pick up this small amount of hCG. However, it won't trigger a positive result on the test because the line intensity isn't dark enough.

The bottom line:

If you've opened the case of a First Response Digital and see two lines, or a faint second line it truly doesn't mean anything. It's not a defective test, or an error test, it just means the test strip has picked up normal trace amounts of hCG that can found in your body at all times, or it means it has detected hCG from pregnancy in an amount too low to trigger a positive result. Just because it can pick up lower levels of hCG (including that from an early pregnancy) it doesn't mean it's a good way to pick up early pregnancy levels of hCG because you can't be sure the hCG it picked up is actually hCG from pregnancy, or just trace levels of other hCG. You are far better off using a traditional test that can pick up very low levels, they do exist. First Response Digital Pregnancy Test is better left to confirm results from a traditional pregnancy test.

As for very sensitive early pregnancy test I recommend Pregmate test strips you can get them on Amazon for extremely cheap and they are extremely sensitive, they can detect just a mere 5miu in urine. Below are my Pregmate strips from this pregnancy at only 9 days past ovulation, or 6 days before my expected period. The lines are so very faint, but were most certainly there and visible, they also progressed pretty quickly.  I tracked my ovulation with BBT, Clearblue connected ovulation test, and the Ava fertility tracker, so I'm positive that the test below was taken on either 8 or 9 DPO. A later early pregnancy ultrasound dated that the test would have been taken on what was 7/8DPO...this is very verrrrry early for a urine test to be positive:

These are the same Pregmate test shown above that I purchased here at Walmart. As you can see they are very cheap and work wonderfully.

Pictures of the inside of First Response Digital Pregnancy Tests:

Some of these are what you can expect from a negative First Response Digital, some were false negatives due to testing too early and they will be captioned as such below the photo.

Two lines on a negative First Response Digital

A very faint second line is found on the strip of a First Response Digital Pregnancy Test

The strip after opening a First Response Digital test showing two lines with a negative result

Strip in an opened First Response Digital pregnancy test case showing a visible test line

This is an example of a false negative, or a First Response Digital pregnancy test taken too early. The woman who took this was pregnant, but received a -no result on the test, but turned out to be pregnant

This pic shows an example of what a First Response Digital pregnancy test looks like with a level of 25miu in the urine. The results of this test was positive or +YES, as you can see a traditional pregnancy test very clearly showed positive at this point and 25miu hCG level. These First Response test shown above are the Rapid Results and are not considered early pregnancy tests.

Inside a First Response Digital Pregnancy negative, both tests above had negative results. The bottom one was taken 24hrs later, the woman was pregnant but had just tested too early. 

This First Response Digital test strip shows a pretty clearly shows two lines, but was a negative result. It could have been interpreted as a false negative because the woman ended up testing positive a couple of days later. Rather than a "false negative" it was truly that the woman had just tested too early with the digital pregnancy test. This is another good example why it's better to use a traditional pregnancy test, and use the digitals to confirm your results.

A postive First Response Digital Pregnancy test, the top strip was a positive results, the middle First Response test strips was a -no or negative result, the bottom is a Clearblue Digital Pregnancy test stip from a test that was negative


I will add more pics  to this page as I am sent them. If you have some you want to send me please send them to me HERE