I applied for a role at the CIA back in June 2021. After a long wait, holidays, etc. I finally reached the poly stage. I went in yesterday for my medical, labs, and poly. I was suppose to return today for my mental health eval. My medical and labs were complete pretty quickly. I advised the medical officer that since the last time I filled out my medical form, I had found out I was pregnant and was currently 12 weeks pregnant. He advised me to make sure my poly examiner was aware since he wasn’t certain if this was a condition that would require authorization from my doctor. Pregnancy was not listed as a condition on the form requiring doctor authorization that I had received prior to my appointments. 

I was stuck in the waiting area for 3 hours waiting for my poly. By the time I was called back, I was exhausted, uncomfortable from sitting, and just wanted to go home. The examiner seemed nice and we went over some of the preliminary things. I was nervous, not because I intended on lying, but because I knew polygraphs were not reliable and there was a possibility it would come back saying I was dishonest about something I had not been dishonest about. I disclosed everything I could think to disclose - my history of marijuana use, my speeding ticket, civil litigation I was involved in, a bankruptcy, and my immigration work where I regularly have contact with non-US citizens. I also disclosed my pregnancy. He confirmed with a supervisor that it’s technically a condition they needed a doctor’s authorization for but I could voluntarily choose to proceed without it. I was not about to have waited 3 hours just to be told to come back another day. I had also taken time off of work and used the last few days of my PTO for this. I decided to proceed without it but instantly became anxious about what implications that may have for baby. 

He had me do the “calibration” where a piece of paper listed numbers 1-6 (or 7, I can’t remember at this point) with the number 4 missing. I was then advised to write in the number 4 and lie when asked if the number I wrote was 4. I thought the calibration went smoothly since he said it had and we went over the questions before I was formally tested on them. Some of the questions included, “in the past 2 years, have you used illegal drugs,” “since you turned 18, have you committed any major crime,” “are you concealing contact with a foreign national”, etc. I was confident in all of my answers but could tell during the exam that my body was not cooperating - I was sitting in an unnatural, fully upright position with a cord tight around my upper stomach and a pressure cuff on that turned my arm purple and caused it to involuntarily shake; my breathing was labored as a result of the anxiety and I needed to pee not long after starting the exam. During the entire exam, I thought of nothing other than how uncomfortable I was, how nervous I was about my baby, and my desire to stand up and stretch. But, this behavior was not different from the calibration portion of the exam so I assumed it would be a nonissue. 

After about an hour of questioning, he said he needed to review the results on a “bigger screen” and would be back in 10 mins. I was excited to be getting out earlier than expected since we have my step kids this week for my step son’s birthday. He ended up not coming back until 15 or so minutes later and he seemed more tense and less friendly than he had been. He sat down and stated he had “no doubt in his mind that I was withholding the truth about crime.” 

He then went in to a spiel that I can’t even recall because I was so flabbergasted by his accusation that I had been dishonest about crime. I wasn’t worried about any of my responses to the questions but I was even less worried about crime especially major crime. I repeated to him multiple times that I was not dishonest in my answer to crime and had not committed major crime. He explained that it didn’t even need to be major but I was obviously withholding something related to crime. After a few attempts to get me to disclose what I had been “dishonest” about, the examiner revealed that whatever it was had been bothering me “even before the test began because I knew even during the calibration that you were withholding something.” This made no sense to me. Of course I was withholding something during the calibration, I was told to. I, again, explained my general anxiety surrounding the test, how uncomfortable I was, etc. He tells me it was obviously something I was thinking about before and during the exam and if I’m not honest with him about what it is, he will not recommend me for a second poly. 

He badgered me for an hour and a half at this point and had me tearing up off and on throughout his interrogation. I was the most stressed I had been in a long time and knew it wasn’t healthy for me to be that stressed given the pregnancy. I eventually gave him some exaggerated and dishonest excuses that could possibly explain the “dishonesty” on the test in hopes of getting out of that room with him. He accepted these explanations and said they would have me do a second poly tomorrow after my mental health eval. By the time I got to my car, I was inconsolable. I called my mom and cried all the way home (I only live about 15 mins from the processing center) and cried and stressed for another hour after getting home to my husband. 

My husband expressed concern about proceeding forward with the process given how stressful this had been and his concern for our baby. I told him that I intended on going back for my second and if they came in and said I was still being dishonest that I would decline to answer any further and withdraw. But, about 2 hours after getting home, I began experiencing unusual cramps and became genuinely scared over the safety of baby. I made the decision then to withdraw from the applicant processing.

My husband and I did research later on about pregnancy and polygraph and found some interesting information. Most polygraph examiners will refuse to examine pregnant women even with doctor authorization; this is generally due to 2 reasons - liability and inaccurate results. Examiners don’t want to be found liable in the event something happens to baby after a stressful exam. Additionally, pregnant women tend to have higher or abnormal blood pressure and vitals that could be falsely interpreted as deception. Pregnant women tend to deal with even more anxiety than average during polygraphs due to concerns related to baby. An article we read specifically said, “these abnormalities can be observed as early as preliminary or calibrating questions and should be kept in mind by the examiner.” My mind jumped back to the examiner’s statement that he knew even during the calibration that I was withholding the truth about something. This was even more upsetting and solidified my decision to not proceed forward. 

I called and left a voicemail for my program manager this morning letting her know I am withdrawing from the applicant process. She called back and said I was late for my appointment today. I let her know I had left her a voicemail and was withdrawing from the applicant processing. She asked why and I explained that I had concerns for baby following the stressful poly and wasn’t comfortable proceeding forward. She apologized for the stress and said she understood baby comes first and encouraged me to apply again in the future. 

My recommendation: don’t do this while you’re pregnant. Whether my “deception” was the result of inaccurate results or a ploy to trick me in to admitting things that I had not already admitted, the stress is not worth it for your piece of mind and baby’s safety.

troll_of_truth wrote on Jun 5^th, 2022 at 1:28pm:


Oh I know. I have no intention of reapplying with them. I understand they have their own policies and what not that they follow but to put that much stress on a pregnant woman is close to cruel. I actually ended up in the ER the following weekend with really concerning symptoms in which stress was a factor. So yeah, definitely not the type of employer I want to work for lol.