History Main / UnexpectedPositive

* In ''[[Literature/DragonridersOfPern The Dolphins of Pern]]'', while visiting Paradise Cove Hold, one of the local dolphins[[note]]Pernese dolphins were descended from uplifted dolphins brought by the original colonists. They have human-level intelligence and can speak.[[/note]] tells green rider Mirrim that she's pregnant. The locals confirm that the dolphins can detect such thing with echo location, and wouldn't blurt out such a thing if it weren't true. Mirrim is stunned: She'd lost several pregnancies previously because she didn't know she was pregnant in time to take precautions[[note]]In this case, not going ''between'' for the duration, as the intense cold of ''between'' is known to induce spontaneous miscarriage[[/note]]. Later books show she gave birth to a healthy son.

* There have been instances of men finding an unused pregnancy test lying around and deciding to take it [[ItAmusedMe just for fun]], only to have it turn out positive, which can be an indication of testicular cancer.

** Mallory, Archer's mother, goes in for a chest x-ray after finding a lump. She doesn't but when Archer leans on the x-ray machine and accidentally scans himself, the resultant photograph shows that ''he'' does have breast cancer.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', a former escort of Archer's demands that he take a paternity test, because she thinks he's the father of her child. Archer worries about the result, so he swaps his DNA sample with one he takes from Cyril. Turns out Cyril was actually the father, but the ruse puts Archer on the hook for child support.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheOffice(US)'', Jim takes a blood-pressure test to prove to Dwight and Pam that he's not lying about being attracted to his new co-worker. But everything is forgotten when the test shows he has high blood pressure.

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[[folder: Comics ]]

[[folder: Fanfiction ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''Film/LoveStory''. Stymied by their failure to conceive, Oliver and Jenny go to the doctor for complete physicals. As it turns out, Jenny is in fact infertile, but the battery of tests is how it's also discovered that she has cancer.

[[folder: Live Action Televsion ]]

* ''Series/ILoveLucy'': Lucy forces Ricky to go to the eye doctor where they find out that his eyes are perfectly fine...it's Lucy who can't see the eye chart correctly! In typical Lucy fashion, wackiness ensues.

* ''Series/TheNanny'':
** The daughter Gracie only had the flu, but Fran had to have her tonsils out.
** Oldest daughter Maggie thinks she's pregnant and goes to a gynecologist for a test. It turns out negative, but when the doctor lists some of the signs Fran interrupts to say ''she's'' been feeling nauseous and tired... [[spoiler: Subverted two episodes later, when it turns out she wasn't really pregnant.]]
* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'': Dorothy takes a hearing test to show Sophia it's no big deal. Sophia does ''not'' need a hearing aid; Dorothy does.
* ''Series/GrowingPains'':
** Maggie is doing a series of news reports about regular medical checkups, and thus undergoes all the usual tests. This is how she discovers she's pregnant.
** In another episode, Jason allows a pediatrician to examine him to show a teenage boy it's no big deal. This is how his hernia is discovered.
* In ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', there was an episode with a hypochondriac patient who demanded every test available. Eventually, as they were running out of tests and trying to convince the guy he was obviously perfectly healthy, Dr. Cox sets him up with an extremely uncomfortable test for a one-in-a-million condition in the hopes that he'll go away. It unexpectedly turned out positive.

* In ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'', Raven and Corey go to the dentist. Corey's scared, so (after having a vision in which one of the pair is shown to need a filling) Raven gets in the chair to show him that it's not so bad. Guess who needs the filling?
* On ''Radio/TheJackBennyProgram'', Jack goes with a neighborhood boy to the dentist because the boy is scared. Guess which one needs a tooth pulled?
* An episode of ''Series/{{ER}}'' had Carter demonstrating to several medical students how to examine a patient's lymph nodes--only to discover a lump in the neck of the student he was examining. After doing a biopsy, he gently informed him that he had lymphoma.

* On ''Series/OneLifeToLive'', Blair was suffering from dizzy spells, but terrified of going to the doctor and finding out what might be wrong. On-again, off-again paramour Max offered to go with her. Sure enough, Blair only had an allergy, while Max was found to have an aneurysm.

* Subverted on ''Series/{{Continuum}}''. In "So Do Our Minutes Hasten", Alec shows off his new health-monitoring wrist bracelet, the Halo, to the Piron board. He convinces a naysayer of its value by having him try it out, and identifying markers for colon cancer. In private, however, he admits that the "data" it collected was all guesswork and information from the man's company insurance files, and he doesn't have a working prototype yet.
* On an episode of ''Series/DiffrentStrokes'', Mr. Drummond purchased a device that measured stress on his doctor's advice. Sure enough, his rating was high, but when the kids goofed around with it, Willis' was off the chart (he was coping with schoolwork, extracurricular activities, running for class office, etc).

* In season 1 episode 11 of ''Series/QueerAsFolkUS'', after Ted discovers that one of the guys he's been with is now HIV positive, Emmett gets tested along with Ted out of solidarity. The clinic gets back to Ted with the good news right away but tells Emmett to come in again on Monday, making Emmett sure he must be positive. [[spoiler: It's a {{Subversion}}. Emmett's negative. There's just a problem with his method of payment.]]
* In ''Series/SeventhHeaven'', Mary must undergo a physical before she leaves for basketball camp that summer. The doctor ropes Annie into having one too, and this is how she finds out she's pregnant with the twins. (But not before an episode-long assumption that ''Mary'' is the pregnant one due to the doctor mixing up their results.)
* ''Series/StrongMedicine'' When the hospital staff was subjected to drug testing, Peter worried that he might test positive given his occasional pot-smoking. He didn't, but Lana tested positive for ''cocaine'', stunning her as she had long since given up that lifestyle. It turns out the medium used for testing--human hair, because toxic substances can linger in the hair long after a person has last used the drug--could also easily pick up outside substances. Lana lived in a poor neighborhood where drug use was frequent and the cocaine particles in the air had clung to her hair (and it being African-American hair made them even more likely to stick than to hair of a different ethnicity and texture), making her test positive even though she no longer used drugs.

* In the ''[[Series/{{Mash}} M*A*S*H]]'' episode "Blood Brothers", a soldier played by Creator/PatrickSwayze offers to donate his blood for a transfusion for his wounded buddy, confidently assuring the doctors that there should be no issues since they have the same blood type. As a formality, Hawkeye and B.J. run blood tests on both of them anyway and discover that Swayze's character has leukemia.
* ''Series/CallTheMidwife'' During a tuberculosis screening campaign in season two Sister Bernadette has a chest X-Ray taken in order to reassure a little girl that it is safe. When the plates are developed, it turns out that Sister Bernadette is suffering from the disease and she needs to be sent to a specialist TB hospital to recover.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', when Marge and Homer are mistakenly assessed as negligent parents, they are forced to attend a parenting class which Marge initially fails due to a false positive diagnosis for crack and PCP.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Archer'', a former escort of Archer's demands that he take a paternity test, because she thinks he's the father of her child. Archer worries about the result, so he swaps his DNA sample with one he takes from Cyril. Turns out Cyril was actually the father, but the ruse puts Archer on the hook for child support.

* On ''TheJackBennyProgram'', Jack goes with a neighborhood boy to the dentist because the boy is scared. Guess which one needs a tooth pulled?

Someone takes a medical exam for some reason ''other'' than genuinely wondering about his/her health. Surprisingly, the test is positive. (Meaning they have whatever condition they were tested for.) Depending on the show and the condition, this can be PlayedForLaughs or PlayedForDrama. In the latter case, it may be a LethalDiagnosis.

* ''TheBradyBunch'': Carol lets the doctor check her tonsils to show Cindy that it won't hurt. Turns out Carol and Cindy ''both'' need their tonsils out.

* On an episode of Series/DifferentStrokes, Mr. Drummond purchased a device that measured stress on his doctor's advice. Sure enough, his rating was high, but when the kids goofed around with it, Willis' was off the chart (he was coping with schoolwork, extracurricular activities, running for class office, etc).

[[AC: Anime and Manga]]

[[AC: Comics]]

[[AC: Fanfiction]]

[[AC: Film]]

[[AC: Literature]]

[[AC:Live Action Televsion]]

[[AC: Western Animation]]

[[AC: Real Life]]

[[AC: Comics]]

* The Swiss French-language graphic novel ''Jo'' is about AIDS. The ([[TomboyishName teenage girl]]) title character meets a boy, Laurent, who is tormented by the memories of his beloved brother who died of AIDS and he is himself afraid of having the disease. She decides that they will be tested together to reasure him. [[spoiler:To their greatest shock, Jo herself is diagnosed with AIDS and the rest of the book is about her dealing with the disease until she dies.]]

* Repeated on ''Series/TheNanny.'' The daughter Gracie only had the flu, but Fran had to have her tonsils out.
** Repeated later when oldest daughter Maggie thinks she's pregnant and goes to a gynecologist for a test. It turns out negative, but when the doctor lists some of the signs Fran interrupts to say ''she's'' been feeling nauseous and tired... [[spoiler: Subverted two episodes later, when it turns out she wasn't really pregnant.]]

* ''Series/GrowingPains'': Maggie is doing a series of news reports about regular medical checkups, and thus undergoes all the usual tests. This is how she discovers she's pregnant.

** The exact same scenario was done years earlier on ''TheJackBennyProgram''. Jack goes with a neighborhood boy to the dentist because the boy is scared. Guess which one needs a tooth pulled?

* An episode of {{ER}} had Carter demonstrating to several medical students how to examine a patient's lymph nodes--only to discover a lump in the neck of the student he was examining. After doing a biopsy, he gently informed him that he had lymphoma.
* During an episode of ''DoogieHowserMD'', the senior Dr. Howser flashed back to a time when he was examining his son, who had asked him to demonstrate to him. Upon examining his abdomen, the boy yelped in pain, and the horrified Dr. Howser realized he'd just discovered that his son had leukemia.
* On ''OneLifeToLive'', Blair was suffering from dizzy spells, but terrified of going to the doctor and finding out what might be wrong. On-again, off-again paramour Max offered to go with her. Sure enough, Blair only had an allergy, while Max was found to have an aneurysm.
* On ''{{Frasier}}'', Niles gets a toothache, and in order to avoid going to the dentist and having a cavity drilled, he decides to get a full physical, on the off chance that the pain could indicate a more serious condition. Everyone else spends the entire episode pointing out that's a complete overreaction to a simple problem. In the end, Niles finally comes around and admits he was being irrational, just before he's informed that he has a serious heart condition.

* In ''SeventhHeaven'', Mary must undergo a physical before she leaves for basketball camp that summer. The doctor ropes Annie into having one too, and this is how she finds out she's pregnant with the twins. (But not before an episode-long assumption that ''Mary'' is the pregnant one due to the doctor mixing up their results.)

[[AC: Literature]]
* In the Literature/GauntsGhosts series, regimental chief medic Dorden gives himself a full-spectrum examination more or less to guilt their chief priest Zweil into taking the same tests. [[spoiler: Zweil is fine, but Dorden has an incurable cancer.]]

* On an episode of DifferentStrokes, Mr. Drummond purchased a device that measured stress on his doctor's advice. Sure enough, his rating was high, but when the kids goofed around with it, Willis' were off the chart (he was coping with schoolwork, extracurricular activities, running for class office).

* Chapter 10 of the ''{{Superjail}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/AllInTheFamily'' has Cherice, who thinks she may be pregnant. The Mistress decides to come along with her to the doctor for some tests, because no one else will. Guess who turns out to be pregnant.

* There have been instances of men finding an unused pregnancy test lying around and deciding to take it [[ItAmusedMe just for fun]], only to have it turn out positive (a positive pregnancy test from a man can be an indication of testicular cancer).

* In {{Scrubs}}, there was an episode with a hypochondriac patient who demanded every test available. Eventually, as they were running out of tests and trying to convince the guy he was obviously perfectly healthy, Dr. Cox sets him up with an extremely uncomfortable test for a one-in-a-million condition in the hopes that he'll go away. It unexpectedly turned out positive.
* In ''{{Coupling}}'', Sally buys three pregnancy tests because she doesn't know what a negative test looks like and asks Susan and Jane to take one each. Of the three of them, it's the apparently infertile Susan who turns out to be pregnant.
* In ''ThatsSoRaven'', Raven and Corey go to the dentist. Corey's scared, so (after having a vision in which one of the pair is shown to need a filling) Raven gets in the chair to show him that it's not so bad. Guess who needs the filling?