The Weird and Wonderful History of Pregnancy Tests

Pregnancy Tests in 1900s

1925

Technology had come a long way during this time and doctors had started to look at other avenues to predict pregnancy in women, focusing their attention on hormones.

Hormones fluctuate in normal patterns, especially during the 28-day menstrual cycle. Doctors followed this cycle of hormones and found that when pregnancy occurred, there was a spike in human chorionic gonadotropin hormone ( hCG), which could not be matched by any other biological state. In other words, they’d found something which, when measured, indicated pregnancy.

1960

During the 1960s, scientists turned their attention towards antibodies to predict pregnancy.

During testing, hCG was swished together with anti-hCG antibodies and a urine sample from a woman. If the cells clumped in a particular way, the woman was pregnant.

1970

In the early 1970s, while working for the National Institute of Health, scientists found a special antibody. This antibody was directed at a subunit of hCG. The subunit of a protein assembles with the other proteins in a hormone to form the final product. This subunit was not to be found in LH, and so adding the specific antibodies for that subunit to the mix formed a new, distinct, pattern that indicated pregnancy and nothing else.

1978

By now, the consumer market had taken over and the first home pregnancy test had become available, which cost $10.

Included in the test kit was a vial of purified water, an eye dropper, a test tube stand with a mirror at the bottom that let you observe the patterns in the tube clearly, and a concoction of solutions that included sheep’s blood.

The test was ninety-seven percent accurate for positive results, and eighty percent accurate for negative ones, provided it was used correctly.

Since 1980

Home pregnancy tests have come along way since 1980, with scientists coming up with more affective ways of prediction pregnancy through urine. Now all you have to do is spend $14.95 at the supermarket, pee on the tip of a plastic stick and your results show up with 99% accuracy.