Obsessive Need to take Home Pregnancy Tests: Pee-on-a-Stick Addiction

You hear it all the time: "I didn't know I was pregnant until the 2^nd trimester." There are a lot of women out there who aren't actively trying to have a child, so they are surprised when that home pregnancy test comes up with a bright pink 2^nd line. There is also another group of women: the pee-on-a-stick addicts, or POAs, for those of you who aren't actively trying to conceive.

When you make that decision to have a child, you automatically assume it'll happen immediately. After all, since childhood we are told women have the babies and its very easy. The first couple cycles can be disheartening when your period rears her ugly head. Some decide to do some internet research to improve their chances. This is where it all begins. They learn about the sensitivity of tests and how to obtain cheap tests at the Dollar Tree or through internet sites. The point is to buy in bulk so you can take the test every day (sometimes twice a day) after ovulation in hopes of seeing that 2^nd line. We convince ourselves that since it is so cheap to buy that we are actually saving money. In reality paying $17.99 for thirty HPTs that we take two a day for 15 days is more expensive then waiting till we miss a period and buying one at the grocery store. Sometimes, we run out of HPTs. Usually at 7 o'clock at night when its inconvenient to run to the dollar store. Then we have to scrounge around for an ovulation predictor kit because we read somewhere that it can be used as a home pregnancy test.

Now, the easy thing to say is well why not just wait till you miss a period? When you are concentrating on timing intercourse, taking basal body temperatures, ovulation predictor kits, and fertility supplements, that two week wait till your missed period can be excruciatingly long and you want to know as soon as possible that it worked. The problem with early result HPTs is that not everyone will be able to get an early result. It varies from woman to woman. Or worse, when that early results test picks up a chemical pregnancy, it can be horribly devastating.

It can be very discouraging to see other woman get positives at 9 day after ovulation but you're sitting at 17 days past ovulation with a big fat negative test. Husbands/partners don't understand it. They never will. For those women out there who want only to have a child, it can become an all-encompassing obsession. We are women. We're supposed to have children. Our inability to conceive makes us failures as women and we desperately try month after month, test after test, to see that elusive second line.

My name is Rachel. I am a POAS addict.