The Long Gestation of the Modern Home Pregnancy Test

Abstract

The ability of women to confirm their pregnancies in the privacy of their own homes was described as a “private little revolution” 35 years ago, when the early version of the modern home pregnancy test, e.p.t (Warner Chilcott), made its debut in the US (1). Indeed, pregnancy tests are among the most widely used home diagnostic tests, having accounted for $228 million in sales in 2012 (http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/pregnancy-test-kit-manufacturing.html?partnerid=prweb). The development of these tests, which are based on the detection of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)2 in the urine, came 50 years after the discovery of hCG by Aschheim and Zondek (2) and after several centuries of descriptions of many other pregnancy tests. The first pregnancy test to be recorded was written around 1350 BC in the Berlin medical papyrus: “Barley [and] wheat, let the woman water [them] with her urine every day with dates [and] the sand, in two bags. If they [both] grow, she will bear. If the barley grows, it means a male child. If the wheat grows, it means a female child. If both do not grow, she will not bear at all” (3). It is likely that the estrogens (and possibly other growth factors) present in pregnancy urine accounts for the growth stimulation of plants in this and other related plant-based tests described in papyri and later texts. During the Middle Ages, physicians described granules, turbidity, and color changes in urine obtained from pregnant women (3). The physicians who diagnosed pregnancy and a host of other medical conditions through examination of the urine were known as “piss prophets,” and they probably arrived at their diagnoses more from being excellent observers of the patient rather than of her urine (Fig. 1). Fig. 1. The Doctor's Visit . 1667. Oil on panel (44.5 × 31.1 cm) by Dutch artist Frans van Mieris the Elder. As a maid attempts to revive a young woman who has fainted, a “piss prophet” examines …