Have you ever wondered how, before the days of modern pregnancy tests, women discovered they were pregnant? Over the years there have been many weird and wonderful ways created – some more successful than others! Read on if you are curious to learn how a frog might have been able to determine if there was going to be a new little addition to the family.
Today, home pregnancy tests are easy to come by and are very helpful and accurate with their results. They work by detecting the levels of the pregnancy hormone (human chorionic gonadotropin, hCG) in the urine and can give a positive result, theoretically, as early as 5 days before a missed period. Many years ago however, things were not quite as straight forward!
One of the first home pregnancy tests came from Ancient Egypt. In these times, people urinated on wheat and barley seeds. It was said that if the wheat seeds sprouted they were going to have a little girl, if the barley seeds sprouted they were having a little boy and if neither sprouted then they weren’t pregnant. Strangely enough, this theory was tested in 1963 and actually found to be approximately 70% accurate!
The ancient Greeks used vegetables to aid their detection methods. They advised inserting an onion into the vagina overnight. Apparently, if you had onion smelling breath the following morning this meant you weren’t pregnant. They thought this because if you weren’t pregnant then the womb would be “open” wafting the onion smell up towards the mouth. One wonders about their knowledge and understanding of the human anatomy?!
In the late 15th century women were advised to wee in a basin and then add a latch or a key. After several hours, the wee and latch/key were removed form the basin and if an impression of the item was visualised on the basin then a pregnancy was confirmed!! This recognition that a women’s “wee” was different in pregnancy was also identified by “piss prophets” in the 16th century. They however did not limit themselves to diagnosing pregnancies but also disease and other illnesses. Now there’s a job title…….!!
Other anatomical differences noted in pregnant women were changes in the eye and something called “Chadwick’s sign”. One 16th century physician, Jacques Guillemeau, claimed that the pupils of women’s eyes become smaller, their eyelids droop and little veins in the corner of the eye become swollen. Chadwick’s sign suggested that the cervix, labia and vagina can take on a dark blue hue due to increased blood flow at approximately 6-8 weeks into the pregnancy.
Lastly, we look at more recent methods using animals. Firstly, the rabbit (or mice or rats). In the early 20th century German scientists identified that there appeared to be a specific hormone found in the urine of pregnant women related to the growth of ovaries (hCG). Urine was therefore injected into sexually immature animals which, if containing the hCG hormone, would start development of the ovaries and produce large masses on them. After a period of days, the animals were then killed and their ovaries examined – if the ovaries were enlarged then you were pregnant! This method proved very popular with humans however it wasn’t so great for the rabbits!! The final method, developed in the 1940s used a similar principle to the rabbit theory. Urine was injected into a live frog and if pregnant, the urine would cause the frog to produce eggs within 24 hours.
So, if you are nipping to your local supermarket to pick up a pregnancy test anytime soon, just spare a thought for those poor women having to insert an onion into their vagina or that unfortunate rabbit giving up its little life for someone to examine it’s ovaries!! Bonkers!!
Sue Jones, Sonographer