As soon as a woman in Texas saw her pregnancy test was positive, she rushed to make plans. She scraped together $750 for the appointment, rented a car, found childcare for her three kids, and drove 10 hours across Texas and Oklahoma to get to a small abortion clinic in Kansas. Once there, she found out she wasn’t pregnant.
“She didn’t believe me,” Dr. Sheila Attaie recalled to HuffPost. “I had to spend a lot of time with her, showing her the ultrasound images, showing her the urine pregnancy test, and looking at the results together because she was in pure disbelief.”
“I felt so bad knowing she had taken all this time and experienced all of this stress debating her decision, figuring out how to make that decision a reality,” Attaie said. “Coming to terms with … something that isn’t even true — her pregnancy.”
These interactions have become common for Attaie, a family medicine doctor from California who also provides abortion care in Kansas part time. The Kansas clinic sees about 30 patients in a day, and Attaie estimates she sees someone with a false positive pregnancy test every other day. Most often, it’s someone who lives in a state where abortion is banned, who took a pregnancy test at home and didn’t go to their local doctor to confirm they were pregnant because they couldn’t risk a pregnancy being documented in their medical records.
During those tough conversations with shocked patients, Attaie asks what pregnancy test they took. She said it’s always the same answer: Clearblue.
Clearblue is the No. 1-selling home pregnancy test brand in the world. Whether you’re trying to get pregnant or not, it’s very likely you’ve seen one of those white and blue sticks in a pregnancy announcement on Instagram or TikTok. Clearblue markets itself as the “#1 OB-GYN recommended brand” and was, according to its website, voted the “most trusted brand” of 2025. The brand often touts itself as being over 99% accurate.
The brand has become so popular in part because of its digital options — the first of which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2003 — that read “pregnant” or “not pregnant” instead of the traditional two-line display. This advancement seemingly takes the guesswork out of interpreting the results and makes it much easier to announce the good news to a partner or family member.
Clearblue currently sells five different types of pregnancy tests that all offer early detection, meaning consumers can take the test up to six days before a missed period, according to the brand’s website. The tests, however, have varying sensitivities in detecting human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) — the hormone used to determine if someone is pregnant. Determining the differences between the tests requires reading information, often in fine print, spread across a product’s box, the pamphlet that comes inside the box, and the brand’s website.
The rise in popularity of social media pregnancy announcements, including sponsored posts from big-time influencers, has boosted the demand for an accessible and reader-friendly test. Clearblue has established itself as the go-to brand for announcing wanted pregnancies, and the most recognizable brand for those with unwanted pregnancies.
The advances in at-home pregnancy tests in the last 20 years have been revolutionary for people with the capacity for pregnancy, and early detection in particular can be a valuable tool. In a post-Roe v. Wade world, where many states have near-total or six-week abortion bans, every day counts — when you find out you’re pregnant can determine whether you’ll be able to get care. A test that promises results even before a missed period can offer a lifeline for many women.
Together, these issues are creating a quiet crisis for patients who are attempting to navigate pregnancy and healthcare access across the country. HuffPost spoke with nine OB-GYNs and family medicine physicians from around the U.S., as well as three others who work in abortion care. The majority of the 12 say they regularly see patients come in with positive Clearblue pregnancy tests and then find out from a urine test or ultrasound that they aren’t pregnant.
“Clearblue takes any concerns regarding potential false positives seriously, and we understand that any positive result that is not later confirmed can be upsetting, confusing, and consequential for patients,” Fiona Clancy, senior director of research and development at Swiss Precision Diagnostics, parent company of Clearblue, told HuffPost in an email. “Clearblue has not identified any systemic false positive concerns from healthcare professionals, consumers, or regulatory bodies indicating a product performance issue across our pregnancy test portfolio,” Clancy said, adding that “any complaints received from consumers worldwide are carefully reviewed and evaluated in accordance with our quality and regulatory processes.”
Dr. Meera Shah is the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, where she oversees a network of 12 health centers in New York. She estimates her clinics see up to one to two patients a day who are not actually pregnant but thought they were after taking a Clearblue test. Recently she saw a patient who made the decision to get an abortion and got the money together for the appointment — then learned the test had been a false positive.
“This feels like getting into a car crash and having no injuries,” Shah recalled the patient saying. “I feel better that I’m not pregnant, but it still sucked.”
It’s unclear why providers are seeing so many patients coming in with positive tests, even though they don’t turn out to be pregnant. Some physicians and experts believe these aren’t false positives but chemical pregnancies, or very early miscarriages, that often go undetected. Chemical pregnancies have always existed, and most women just never knew they had experienced one. But advances in pregnancy tests have increased detection.
Lauren Ralph, an epidemiologist and associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California San Francisco, pointed to a landmark 1988 study that followed a group of women trying to conceive: It found that 22% of pregnancies ended before they would have been recognized clinically. Lauren Wise, a professor of epidemiology at Boston University who has published research on pregnancy test use and timing, had a similar theory. “Clearblue tests are the most popular tests on the market,” Wise said. “It is most likely that these individuals had a spontaneous pregnancy loss.”
Other medical professionals think Clearblue’s early digital test is too sensitive, detecting hCG at rates so low they are not truly representative of being pregnant. Early detection tests in doctors’ offices typically detect an hCG of 25, and doctors only officially determine whether someone is pregnant and has a healthy pregnancy after seeing that number increase over a few days. At-home pregnancy tests used to only pick up hCG levels of 50 or above, but one of Clearblue’s early detection digital tests identifies hCG levels as low as 10.
“You have an hCG of 10? I don’t know what that means,” said Dr. Maya Bass, a family medicine physician based in New Jersey who is also a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health. “To be honest, I don’t know that I would call that pregnant unless that number continues to increase.”
“The question is: Should they be allowed to market a test that picks up hCG before it’s even helpful?” she added.
Some of the OB-GYNs pointed out that a digital test gives the seemingly definitive result of “pregnant” based on any low detection of hCG. (Tumors, perimenopause and fertility medications meant to trigger ovulation can introduce hCG levels into urine.) A digital test leaves no room for interpretation, unlike a two-line test that could come back with a light second line and inform the patient to continue testing.
“Digital gives the illusion that this is a binary situation as opposed to a slope,” said Dr. Kelly Pfeifer, a family physician living in California who also runs abortion clinics in Kansas and Ohio. Pfeifer says she sees at least several patients a month with Clearblue false positives in her Kansas and Ohio clinics.
Most agreed it’s likely a combination of all of the above. Still, nearly all questioned the accuracy of the test itself, noting that other brands also offer early detection tests. If this is an early detection issue or all of these cases are chemical pregnancies, providers say, shouldn’t they be seeing the same issue with those other tests?
“Every time I ask someone which test they used when they show up and they’re not pregnant … It’s almost always Clearblue,” Pfeifer said. Another physician, who asked to remain anonymous for her personal safety, said she has “only seen a false positive thing, repeatedly, with the Clearblue test.”
“Every time I ask someone which test they used when they show up and they’re not pregnant … It’s almost always Clearblue.”- Dr. Kelly Pfeifer, a California-based family physician who runs abortion clinics in Kansas and Ohio
Shah, from Planned Parenthood, doesn’t believe it’s an early detection issue. If it were, she said, her patients would also be seeing more false negatives. False positives in pregnancy tests are less common than false negatives (even according to Clearblue’s own data), especially when a test — like Clearblue’s early detection digital test — is used before a missed period. And while she believes some are likely chemical pregnancies, the sheer volume of patients presenting with this issue simply doesn’t add up.
“It’s just a bad test,” Shah said.
Clearblue’s pregnancy tests are over 99% accurate “when used from the day you expect your period,” according to the company’s website. But the brand’s digital tests — which physicians said they commonly see with false positives — are not as accurate when used for early detection. “Pregnancy detection rates” decrease the earlier a person uses Clearblue digital tests, according to the small print at the bottom of the brand’s website — seemingly cautioning users about the possibility of false negatives rather than false positives.
Still, Clearblue’s marketing campaign is centered on its tests being over 99% accurate, even though accuracy levels vary depending on test type and when a test is taken.
“It is also important to distinguish between a true false positive and a positive result that is not later confirmed,” Clancy, from SPD, said. Clancy noted there were many reasons why someone may receive a positive result and then get a negative result later — including early pregnancy loss or chemical pregnancies, recent pregnancy including miscarriage or abortion, certain fertility treatments, medications or medical conditions that could introduce higher levels of hCG.
“When used as directed from the day of the expected period, Clearblue Pregnancy Tests are clinically proven to be over 99% accurate, and false positive results are rare,” she said. She added that all Clearblue pregnancy tests meet FDA requirements for safety and performance, including early detection tests: “The 10mIU/mL sensitivity threshold is an established sensitivity level within the pregnancy test category and is not, in itself, an indicator of a product performance issue.”
Abortion bans have created an increased urgency for people to find out if they’re pregnant as early as possible — likely incentivizing women to seek out early detection tests at higher rates than before Roe fell. Providers varied on how long they’ve seen this issue, with one who says she began noticing false-positive Clearblue tests as early as 2012. But they all said that they’ve seen an increase in patients with false positives since the Supreme Court repealed federal abortion protections in 2022, which paved the way for 16 states to implement near-total abortion bans.
“People feel like they need to find out right away so that they can handle it right away because they don’t have time. Because they’re under pressure, because of the cost, because of the travel,” Dr. Samantha Glass, a primary care doctor based in New York City who also provides abortion care in Kansas, told HuffPost. She said she sees patients with false-positive Clearblue tests in her Kansas clinic around once a month.
Pfeifer, the abortion provider who runs clinics in Kansas and Ohio, believes “Clearblue is marketing to the audience of ‘I’m desperate to know if I’m pregnant.’”
“I’ve just had so many women who have said, ‘You have no idea how hard it was for me to drive from Houston to Wichita and get childcare and borrow a car and get time off work and hide this from my friends and make up a story for my mother who watched my kids. And now you’re telling me I didn’t need to go at all?’” Pfeifer recalled. “There’s just so many stories like that, and one doesn’t stand out because it’s such a common experience.”
In an email to HuffPost, Clancy said, “We recognize that pregnancy testing can happen at an emotional and sometimes time-sensitive moment, whether someone is hoping for a pregnancy or not. Our goal is not to exploit vulnerability, but to help women access accurate information so they can better understand their result and make informed decisions about their health.”
The pamphlet that currently comes with Clearblue tests does advise patients to confirm with their doctor if they receive a positive test result. However, the brand states on its website that “if you get a positive pregnancy test, you are pregnant … As home tests are so accurate, usually your doctor will not need to test again.” (“This statement reflects the high accuracy of home pregnancy tests when used as directed,” Clancy said.) The only mentions of false positives accompany non-digital tests, and they’re in very fine print that most users likely don’t read.
“Across our marketing communications, packaging, and instructions, we aim to provide information that is clear, responsible, and supportive, including guidance on when to test, how to use the product as directed, and when to contact a healthcare professional with questions,” Clancy said.
The SPD spokesperson listed Clearblue’s five different pregnancy tests in an email to HuffPost, and gave information on how to use each one. But there were discrepancies between what Clancy wrote in her email and the information on the Clearblue website. For example, Clancy wrote that the digital pregnancy test with Smart Countdown technology should be used from the day of a missed period, but the brand’s website states it can be used up to five days before a missed period. After HuffPost pointed out this inconsistency, Clancy clarified that the digital test with smart countdown can indeed be used five days before a missed period.
Clearblue is dominating the pregnancy-test market — a multibillion-dollar industry that is growing larger every year. A quick TikTok search for “pregnancy announcement” populates thousands of videos of happy pregnant women proudly holding up a blue-and-white positive Clearblue pregnancy test. The brand has partnered with actors, reality TV stars and social media influencers who announce they’re pregnant to their thousands — sometimes millions — of followers using a Clearblue test. Actor Candice King received more than 2.5 million likes and 3 million views announcing her third pregnancy to her nearly 12 million Instagram followers in a paid partnership post with Clearblue. Heidi Montag, a former reality TV star, name-dropped her Clearblue test alongside a photo of her holding the positive digital pregnancy test in an Us Weekly exclusive revealing her second pregnancy.
The brand has even started selling bedazzled “keepsake” pregnancy announcement sticks — a digital pregnancy test that reads “pregnant” that you can use as a Christmas tree ornament. “Because your results deserve a little extra sparkle!” the brand’s Instagram account declares. (Clearblue notes “pregnant” is pre-printed on the screen and no one has urinated on the device before it was bedazzled.)
“People feel like they need to find out right away so that they can handle it right away because they don't have time. Because they're under pressure, because of the cost, because of the travel.”- Dr. Samantha Glass, a New York-based primary care doctor who provides abortion care in Kansas
Swiss Precision Diagnostics does not publicly share its annual profits because it operates as a privately shared partnership between Procter & Gamble and Abbott. But annual revenues for SPD are estimated at around $28 million.
There have been at least 10 formal complaints to the FDA since 2022 regarding Clearblue false-positive tests, all reviewed by HuffPost. The reporting physicians are based in states across the country, from New York to Arizona to North Carolina.
“Patient used clear blue brand pregnancy test twice and had false positive. Drove hundreds of miles to get an abortion and was found in clinic to have two negative tests and empty uterus on ultrasound, proving false positive at home clear blue brand pregnancy test,” one complaint from December 2024 reads. “I have seen dozens like this, and always with clear blue brand. Please look into increased false positive rate. This has a huge emotional and financial consequences.”
Another complaint from October 2022 states: “Patient with two false positive clear blue pregnancy tests at home, resulting in unnecessary travel to seek care several hundred miles out of state.”
Attaie, the doctor who provides part-time abortion care in Kansas, said she filed at least two complaints with the FDA over the course of 2024 and 2025 using the agency’s portal for reporting problems with medical devices. She told HuffPost she also wrote to Clearblue once using the website’s consumer email portal. She said she didn’t receive any responses. She has never submitted a grievance with the FDA for any other medical device or drug in her eight years as a physician.
Dr. Glenna Martin was put in touch with Clearblue after filing a complaint with the FDA, but said nothing came from her interaction. Martin, a family medicine physician in Seattle, had heard about the issue of Clearblue false positives from colleagues, but hadn’t actually seen any patients with the issue. So in July 2022, when a patient presented with a false-positive pregnancy test, Martin knew to ask if it was a Clearblue test. In Martin’s recollection, the patient had used a digital test. The doctor filed a complaint with the FDA. The FDA forwarded Martin’s complaint to SPD, which said it would like to investigate further. An SPD product specialist asked Martin several questions in an August 2022 email exchange reviewed by HuffPost, including the date and time the patient took the pregnancy test, whether the test was still available for investigation and the lot number of the test. Martin was puzzled because she had already answered all of these questions in her complaint to the FDA, but she answered them again to the best of her knowledge and repeatedly referred back to the FDA complaint.
“Conflicting pregnancy tests results do very occasionally occur with both home and professional use tests and in the absence of further information it is difficult for us to comment on why your patient got the results which she did,” the product specialist responded. “Factors that need considering when comparing test results are such things as any history of recent pregnancy in the last 9 weeks, any medication, the date the pregnancy test was performed, the urine sample used e.g. concentrated or dilute, the different sensitivities of the tests used and the date the blood test was performed.”
Martin told the product specialist the patient had an IUD. She also told HuffPost her patient had no recent pregnancy and was not on any medications that contained hCG. When Martin asked if the product specialist could provide clinical support for the claim that concentrated urine containing no hCG could cause a false positive in a pregnancy test, the specialist responded: “Sorry if it was not clear, concentrated urine will not cause a false positive, however dilute urine can potentially cause a false negative.” Martin said it was odd that the product specialist brought up diluted urine causing false negatives when her complaint was about a false positive.
“They gave me what felt like boilerplate language: their tests are more than 99% accurate,” Martin said. “I basically dropped it because they obviously were not going to give me the information I was asking for. It just felt like I was not being taken seriously as a clinician.”
Clearblue monitors the FDA database for complaints about the brand’s tests, Clancy said, adding that these reports “do not establish that a device caused the reported outcome.” Lucy White, a science and medical affairs manager for SPD, said in a later email: “Clearblue remains responsible for identifying and investigating potential issues through its post‑market surveillance activities, including routine monitoring of the FDA’s [medical device] database.”
“The FDA cannot confirm or deny the existence of complaints regarding a specific device,” an FDA spokesperson told HuffPost. “The FDA regulates at-home pregnancy tests as Class II medical devices, meaning they carry moderate risk and are subject to general and special controls to ensure safety and effectiveness.”
In 2022, Shah, from Planned Parenthood, wrote an email to several other abortion providers that her clinics were seeing an “abnormally high rate of patients presenting to care with false-positive Clearblue pregnancy tests.” The responses from other physicians flooded in: “Saw someone at Planned Parenthood who had done 8 (8!) tests at home, all positive, but was negative x 2 in clinic.” “I had a girl fly [from] El Salvador who had done at least 3 clear blues that were positive and she was not pregnant.” Shah says she reported the issue to the FDA in April 2022, after she had noticed an undeniable number of patients coming in for abortion care who weren’t actually pregnant. She was getting texts almost every day from staff at her clinics about Clearblue false-positive tests. Shah said she did not receive a response from the FDA.
“It’s for sure a pattern,” said Tammi Kromenaker, owner and director of Minnesota abortion clinic Red River Women’s Clinic. “As soon as there’s nothing in the uterus, we do a test and it’s negative, I default to: Did you take a Clearblue [test]?” Kromenaker has seen over two dozen patients present with false-positive Clearblue tests in the last two years, according to her records. She estimates that around 70% of Red River patients come from North Dakota, where abortion is currently banned.
One physician told HuffPost they’re seeing similar issues with Clearblue tests for people with wanted pregnancies. Bass, the primary care physician from New Jersey, often sees patients before they see their OB, which usually doesn’t happen until around eight or 10 weeks’ gestation. She recalled a heartbreaking interaction in 2022 with an older patient who had been trying to conceive for years. The woman was so excited that she was pregnant, but when she arrived at Bass’ office, her pregnancy test was negative, and the ultrasound showed an empty uterus. The patient had taken a Clearblue test.
“She was really sad,” Bass said. “A seed of hope was crushed really quickly.”
Dr. April Lockley, a family medicine doctor and abortion provider based in New York City, recently had a patient travel from Tennessee for an abortion in New York after getting a positive Clearblue test. The woman had an IUD and was worried about an ectopic pregnancy, but when she arrived at Lockley’s clinic, an ultrasound showed she was not pregnant. Lockley says it’s common for her to see Clearblue false positives in her additional role as the medical director for the Miscarriage + Abortion Hotline, a helpline where callers from across the country can speak with a physician if they have questions while using abortion pills at home. People take pregnancy tests after undergoing a medication abortion or miscarriage to confirm the termination was successful. The timing is important — it can take up to six weeks after an abortion for hCG levels to be non-detectable depending on how far into pregnancy the person was — but most callers are following instructions from the physician who provided them with abortion pills.
“In the self managed abortion work that I do, seeing tons of false positives with clear blue digital,” Lockley wrote to colleagues in a 2022 email. “People are already in an anxious state and feel like they can’t see their care providers and these tests are making things so much worse!”
Abortion pills are safe to take, even for someone who isn’t pregnant. But they can be expensive, difficult to find and cause unpleasant side effects. With the large number of false positives from Clearblue tests both before and after abortion care, Lockley wondered to HuffPost: “All these people doing medication abortion at home now — which is great — but, like, how many of those were never pregnant anyway?”
Have you ever gotten a positive result from a Clearblue pregnancy test but later found out you weren’t pregnant? We’d love to hear from you. Reach out to reporter Alanna Vagianos via email alanna.vagianos@huffpost.com with your story.
