Written by our resident pharmacist,Yeniset Santana.
There are surprisingly few medications or substances that can affect the accuracy of a home pregnancy test. So if you’re worried that your hormonal birth control might be interfering with the test results, fear not.
Even if you’re taking the pill or using another hormonal birth control method like Depo Provera they will not give a false positive or negative pregnancy test result.
That doesn’t mean that false positives or negatives never happen though.
They do.
Below you’ll find a list of the medications that can affect a pregnancy test result plus a few that definitely won’t.
Substances that definitely won’t effect your pregnancy test results are:
- Alcohol
- Antibiotics
- Illegal drugs – such as amphetamine, MDMA (ecstasy), marijuana, cocaine etc.
- Hormonal Birth Control (Pill, Depo Shot, Implants,
- Herbal Remedies
Medications that Can Affect a Pregnancy Test
Fertility drugs containing the hormone hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) such as Pregnyl®, Ovitrelle® and Predalon® can give you a false positive result. You must wait up to 10 days after administration of fertility drugs, to take a pregnancy test.
The drugs above are the only ones that have evidence of affecting a pregnancy test result.
There are other pages online that state that the following medications can also cause false positive results, but we have researched the claims extensively and have found absolutely no evidence to back up them up:
Drugs Unproven to Affect Pregnancy Testing
– Antipsychotics
– Parkinson’s disease medications
– Methadone
– Antihistamines
– Anti-anxiety medications
– Diuretics
Authority websites including drugs.com and clearblue.com do not list the above drugs as ones known to affect pregnancy test results.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a few things to be aware of when it comes to getting an accurate home pregnancy test result. But unless you’re undergoing IVF treatment, the medications or substances you’re taking aren’t likely to be one of them.
Sources:
1. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/getting-pregnant/in-depth/home-pregnancy-tests/art-20047940/ Consulted on: Apr 2nd/2018
2. https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2004/07935s030lbl.pdf[U2]
3. https://pdf.hres.ca/dpd_pm/00040840.PDF
4. https://www.drugs.com/article/pregnancy-test.html
5. http://www.clearblue.com/pregnancy-tests/rapid-detection
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4119102/