No Longer Positive

It sounds like you may have experienced a chemical pregnancy, a pregnancy that ends practically before it even begins. In a chemical pregnancy. the egg is fertilized and begins to implant in the uterus, but for some reason it never completes implantation. Instead of turning into a viable pregnancy, it ends in a period. Though experts estimate that up to 70 percent of all conceptions are chemical, the vast majority of women who experience one don’t even realize they’ve conceived (certainly in the days before home pregnancy tests, women didn’t have a clue they were pregnant until much later). Often , a very early positive pregnancy test and then late period (a few days to a week later) are the only signs of a chemical pregnancy, so if there’s a downside to early home pregnancy testing, you’ve definitely experienced it.

Medically, a chemical pregnancy is more like a cycle in which a pregnancy occurred than a true miscarriage. Emotionally, for women like you who tested early and got a positive result, it can be a very different story. Though it’s not technically a pregnancy loss, the loss of  the promise of a pregnancy can also be upsetting for both you and your spouse.