Why do so many people use answer sites as pregnancy or paternity tests?

Must be a labour of love for some people.

Quick Edit “sights” in question?

I can only imagine these are fairly unsophisticated and scared women who either don’t have much access to medical care or knowledge about pregnancy testing.

As far as asking who the father is, that’s just dumb.

They’re probably just too embarrassed to ask those questions in real life. Q&A sites provide a certain level of anonymity. Also, maybe they aren’t even aware of how to get a hold of pregnancy tests. Or maybe they are too embarrassed to go out and get them.

You can get a test at the dollar store. I don’t get it either.

People don’t want to face the truth. They are just hoping for a negative answer so they don’t have to do anything about it.

Well, there do seem to be a lot, and I’m not really sure why so many people think online folks can diagnose that.

On a totally unrelated topic, my period is a week late, I’ve been increasingly nauseated, and my breasts are swollen and extremely tender. What’s your best guess?

^ Oh yeah… some others, like @WillWorkForChocolate, ask questions like that jokingly to tease people who are serious when they ask questions like that. =P

In this case it’s obvious it’s a joke, but it isn’t always obvious when the person is joking.

This site doesn’t get paternity questions very much, but other sites get lots of paternity questions. The most common is the blood type question, but I’ve seen people who track the dates of their unprotected sex with multiple partners then ask the site which unprotected sex partner was the most likely father based on the due date of the baby. I’ve always wondered how someone so careless and casual about sex partners could be so precise about the dates they had sex with whom.

@AnonymousWoman Actually, I was only half joking… I really do have all those symptoms. :)

@WillWorkForChocolate Hmmmm…

@janbb My thoughts, exactly. Hmmm… I don’t know what to think, as I’ve had so many “pregnancy scares” it’s unreal. I’m assuming I’m psychologically doing this to myself yet again, but I’m still going to be disappointed if I start my period. :(

@keobooks Maybe they keep a log or they talked about it in PMs and they went and found the dates. I know what you mean about it seeming odd that they have such a good memory about that kind of stuff, though. Who knows? Maybe they just pay extra attention when they are sexing up more than one person around the time of their lastest period “just in case” they get pregnant.

@WillWorkForChocolate Well, you have a good enough reputation that that slid right by me… ;)

Hehe. ;)

I suspect a good many of the people asking the question are too young to go into a pharmacy on their own and buy a pregnancy testing kit.

Good thinking, @downtide. What is the age limit for that in the U.K.?

I am also inclined to think that in the U.S., where unconstitutional religious-inspired “abstinence-only” sex education is widespread (I had that myself growing up, in a public school; it assumed that everyone was heterosexual and was going to wait until marriage to have sex), ignorance about how reproduction actually occurs is also widespread.

They want to be reassured that they are not pregnant (almost always the case) without having to go purchase a test and take it. It is one of the most nerve racking and scary things to do ever, I have done it, it took me 2 days to take the test after I bought it. Not fun. That’s probably why, or at least part of the reason. It was for me…..I did ask a question when I thought I COULD be pregnant (and turned out to be) but I truly did not think I was beforehand. I could not believe it. For many people though I Think it’s a combination of that and the fact that they have no one else to talk to.

I’ll jump in first with “to get attention” and “because they have never been properly educated”.

give me a minute and i’ll find a way to blame the media and popular culture