It is generally recommended to store pregnancy tests at room temperature, or at least between 36 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit. So, you should always refer to the expiration date on the package to be certain.Ĭertain conditions can also affect how quickly pregnancy tests expire. It may have spent a considerable amount of time sitting on a store shelf. However, this does not mean that the test will last for two years after you buy it, Blumenthal says. Paul Blumenthal, MD, an OB-GYN and Professor at Stanford University whose research includes pregnancy tests. "Like many pharmaceuticals, pregnancy tests last for two to three years," says Dr. The antibodies in home pregnancy tests react specifically to hCG, but will slowly evaporate and become less effective over time. But we can also synthesize antibodies in the lab for many different types of tests that can diagnose everything from infectious diseases to pregnancy. Normally, antibodies are proteins that our immune systems produce to fend off infection and disease, like the flu. The way pregnancy tests work is that they are coated in a special type of lab-made antibody. However, the more common urine pregnancy tests, which you can pick up at your local pharmacy, can and do expire. You can get one at a doctor's office, where they will draw a blood sample to be sent out for testing. Pregnancy tests will expire in a couple of yearsīlood pregnancy tests do not expire because analysis happens in a laboratory rather than at home. Both test for the hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin ( hCG), which you start producing after implantation. There are two types of pregnancy tests: urine and blood.
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