Expert: Dr. Harriet Johnson - 10/15/2009

Question
I had an abortion 5 weeks ago, when I 8 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I regret the decision but obviously can't take it back. It has been really hard moving on but that's all I can do. My question is that I took a pregnancy test yesterday 10/14/09 & it came up a very faint positive. I took birth control for about 10 days following the abortion then decided I would prefer the shot or nuvaring over the pill because It's hard for me to take it everyday, so i stopped taking it. We did have sex & he finished inside while i was ON the pill still. could my positive test be from the past abortion or could I be pregnant again? It's been five weeks..i dont have any symptoms of pregnancy anymore. I am wondering if it is so faint because very few hormones have remained in my body from the past pregnancy. If I am pregnant again I will be keeping it for sure, i made a mistake once and would never do it again.

Answer
Hi Lauren,

It's hard to tell if this could be a new pregnancy or not. Most likely you do still have the hormones from your last pregnancy in your body. The only way to know for sure is to have a blood test, it will show the amount of hCG hormone in your body which will be higher if you are currently pregnant again and lower if you aren't pregnant. Good luck!