Good question, is a midstream or strip pregnancy test better? To be honest it isn’t down to better or worse, but to personal preference. According to research 95% of women prefer midstream or in-stream tests.
What’s Good and Bad About Midstream Pregnancy Tests?
GOOD
- You don’t get your hands wet… or have the potential to get them wet, you wee right onto the test
- The test lines are pretty big and therefore easy to see, especially if you wear glasses!
- Midstream tests are available in digital or analog versions, digital can be handy if you are unsure if you have a line or not
- Anywhere you can buy a pregnancy test they have midstream versions available
BAD
- Depending on which tests you buy you can end up spending a fortune on tests, as most brands don’t usually sell packs larger than 3
- The majority, ok all except ours, have a hard plastic case that takes 20-30 years to breakdown in landfill
What’s Good and Bad About Strip Pregnancy tests?
GOOD
- They use far less plastic than a traditional midstream pregnancy test (unless you buy our Hoopsy test!)
- You can buy them in bulk (eg pack of 25) which makes them much cheaper on a per test basis
BAD
- You have to wee in a container to catch the urine for testing, which means a) more chance of getting wee on your hands (if that bothers you) and b) you need to find a container and wash it up afterward
- The strip tests are tiny, approx 7-9cm long by 0.4cm wide, which makes the lines harder to see, plus fiddly to pick up and easy to drop
- Not every retail store carries strip tests, so usually you need to buy them online
Is a Midstream or Strip Pregnancy test better?
It comes down to personal preference,
– Whether you are worried about getting wee on your hands or in a container that you own when using the strip test
– If you have bad eyes and need the bigger lines of a midstream test or can read the small lines on a strip test
– If you are a bit clumsy you might not cope with the strip tests
– Your budget, if you are addicted to peeing on a stick strip tests are probably the way to go unless you have a BIG bank account! The lady in this article used 650 tests, which would be a lot of $$$$$$
So which way do you go? Personally, when I was testing last year I used midstream tests, mostly because they were less fiddly, and I often dipped them in urine I collected because I felt it was easier to make sure that I had actually got it in the urine! Sometimes it can be hard to see with midstream tests.