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Digital pregnancy tests have an internal paper test

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Re: Digital pregnancy tests have an internal paper test

#151

Post by blacksmith_tb »

thih9 wrote: post #47
0latency wrote: post #22

Pregnancy/Motherhood groups are swarmed with the same "can you read this, I think I see a faint line" + photo question every single day because of the cheap tests. The strip results are NOT easy to interpret, because you may still see a faint line on the paper when not pregnant, and it's kind of an important emotional question as some couples have been trying to get pregnant for years. Your OB does you a mercy if the…

Perhaps there should be more examples of positive and negative readings in the paper test’s leaflet? Including photos like those that get posted on forums. I know this wouldn’t solve all cases but seems like it could be helpful for some.

Or given that a photo of a piece of paper is hard to interpret too, possibly the literature could include an actual piece of test strip to compare... possibly an untreated one, unless that changes how it looks.

Re: Digital pregnancy tests have an internal paper test

#152

Post by copperx »

sokoloff wrote: post #114
rubidium wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This exactly. I had to convince my wife not to doubt herself. “Yes that’s a line. Instructions say that if anything appears even if faint then you’re pregnant. No we don’t need to double check. Wahoo you’re pregnant!!”

We had the same conversation, followed by at least $30 worth of double-checking over the next several days...

That should have started the usually uncomfortable dialog about enrolling in a basic statistics course. It could save your relationship.

Re: Digital pregnancy tests have an internal paper test

#153

Post by sokoloff »

copperx wrote: post #152
sokoloff wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had the same conversation, followed by at least $30 worth of double-checking over the next several days...

That should have started the usually uncomfortable dialog about enrolling in a basic statistics course. It could save your relationship.

This is one of best, perhaps the singularly the best, times in life to smile and go along with it. (She has a PhD in neuroscience; entering some kind of Statistics Olympics wasn't going to improve anything in my life at that moment.)

Re: Digital pregnancy tests have an internal paper test

#154

Post by kortex »

underbluewaters wrote: post #108
stuaxo wrote: post #78

As pointed out on the twitter thread. If a digital test is wanted, there's no reason it couldn't accept exactly the kind of disposable strip it contains. That way the part that is going to become ewaste could at least be re-usable.

You'd have to make sure the diodes were exactly lined up with the strip in order to avoid false negatives. That doesn't seem like a risk worth taking to save a few bucks. Maybe some sort of cartridge system could be developed.

That's what the control strip is for. Use that for registration. What you really care about is the relative intensities of the control and test.

Re: Digital pregnancy tests have an internal paper test

#155

Post by raverbashing »

xsmasher wrote: post #145
raverbashing wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then maybe something needs to be added to the manual: "If the line shows but is faded: retake the test in X days" Or maybe the test can have lines with different sensitivities.

"Fix it in the documentation" is a terrible solution to a UI issue. Fix the UI. When the user makes a mistake it's the user's problem, but the designer's fault.

I agree the ideal solution is to fix the UI but sometimes there are limitations. Like in this case.

Re: Digital pregnancy tests have an internal paper test

#156

Post by ponker »

copperx wrote: post #152
sokoloff wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had the same conversation, followed by at least $30 worth of double-checking over the next several days...

That should have started the usually uncomfortable dialog about enrolling in a basic statistics course. It could save your relationship.

Yes, someone who’s made it as far in a relationship as intentional pregnancy should “save” their relationship by suggesting remedial education to their partner...

Re: Digital pregnancy tests have an internal paper test

#157

Post by nullsense »

leto_ii wrote: post #71

Going over the conversation here I'm a bit surprised by how many people seem to prefer an unnecessarily complicated and obfuscating solution to the straight-forward one. The Twitter thread clearly points out that the electronics serve strictly as an intermediary layer between the paper test and the user. They just binarize the paper reading. This in turn gives a false psychological sense of security ("it's the comput…

I'm a kind of color blind where I only see 150,000 colors. I have trouble distinguishing where purple ends and blue starts. Same goes for a bunch of other color pairs. I didn't figure it out for decades, and before I did I remember some heated arguments where it was me vs everyone else on "this shelf is purple" vs "that shelf is blue, not purple".

The day I figured it out those memories started coming back and it all clicked. I stopped trusting myself after that. I knew I didn't trust myself anymore when my 3 year old son would reference the bus I used to catch by it's color and I didn't know whether he was wrong or I was, so I just kept my mouth shut cos there was a better chance he was right.

Re: Digital pregnancy tests have an internal paper test

#158

Post by lightlyused »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #138
lightlyused wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say super important. I'll probably get down voted for my opinion, but if we had proper sex education for everyone and valued women's health care than this wouldn't be an issue.

I don't think that sex education and accessible abortions stops people from being emotionally invested in finding out if they are pregnant. This can be a stressful question whether you want a child, don't want a child, or don't know!

Teenagers were specifically mentioned in the comment. Good sex education helps because reproduction is now not some mysterious process. They will then be able to make good choices when they decide to sex. Having access to abortion services helps because having sex shouldn't ruin someones life.

Re: Digital pregnancy tests have an internal paper test

#159

Post by ornornor »

wwn_se wrote: post #55
0latency wrote: post #22

Pregnancy/Motherhood groups are swarmed with the same "can you read this, I think I see a faint line" + photo question every single day because of the cheap tests. The strip results are NOT easy to interpret, because you may still see a faint line on the paper when not pregnant, and it's kind of an important emotional question as some couples have been trying to get pregnant for years. Your OB does you a mercy if the…

Well yes but the digital test does not give your better info. They translate a non binary result to a binary one. What I did when "we" were doing these tests (got 2 types both paper stips, one high sensitivity and one of the cheapest one) simply compare a unused strip and the one with pee. It's not hard and the manual in the ones I got were really good. Like color pictures and lots of examples.

Is it really a case of “cheaper is inferior”?

I’d think these things have minimum standards they must meet and so the cheapest test is just as good as the more marketed (and more expensive) one. Am I missing something?

Re: Digital pregnancy tests have an internal paper test

#160

Post by s1artibartfast »

lightlyused wrote: post #158
s1artibartfast wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that sex education and accessible abortions stops people from being emotionally invested in finding out if they are pregnant. This can be a stressful question whether you want a child, don't want a child, or don't know!

Teenagers were specifically mentioned in the comment. Good sex education helps because reproduction is now not some mysterious process. They will then be able to make good choices when they decide to sex. Having access to abortion services helps because having sex shouldn't ruin someones life.

I don't think that anyone was arguing those points. simply that they wont eliminate the stress associated with test taking, which is the purpose of this device.
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