They're sold in pairs in case one turns out positive, the woman can retest to verify before taking time off work to head to the doctor.

Additionally, if you're on certain kinds of birth control, you may need to test once or twice a month. Having extras allows a woman to do this without going to the store repeatedly.

In this case, the company IS playing to the customer - the biggest customer, which is women. I'm going to assume you aren't a woman from your screen name. The biggest customers are women who are on birth control that suppresses the menstrual cycle. They want a multi-pack, and even women testing for planned pregnancy also want a multi-pack. It's one of those things that doesn't make sense until you're in one of the two situations.

It's great that the companies provide multipacks for most women who want or need them, but what about the minority who really only need one? What if a women had sex a few weeks ago and her period is late so she just wants to check? It would be nice if she could just buy one or two.

I've just never heard this complaint from women before (and I discuss pregnancy testing often enough to hear it), which makes me wonder if there's more than eight or nine women nationwide who have a searing need to buy pregnancy tests one at a time.

So far, men are discussing this. Where'd you get the idea from? Do you guys have girlfriends who are fuming over this? I could understand the need in that case, but I don't hear that subtext in what you're saying.

I think purely for marketing purposes they should. If an "accident" happens for someone who usually uses a condom, they would only want to buy one test. They don't plan on "accidents" in the future so why would they want more than one test?