Trying to figure out if you’re pregnant is probably as old as humanity itself. People had some pretty weird methods, like urinating on wheat and barley seeds (which kind of worked!), or mixing urine with wine for divination by a “wine prophet,” or shoving an onion into a patient’s vagina to see if it gave her bad breath. (This does NOT work, Gwyneth Paltrow. Do not recommend this.)
These days, people who think they might be pregnant can pee on testing sticks that check for the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). But nearly a century ago, when reliable HCG testing was being developed, it looked about as bizarre as the “wine prophet” and was so expensive only wealthy people could afford it.
Related on the SLP
The urine of a possibly pregnant person was bottled and sent to a lab, where it was repeatedly injected subcutaneously into five female mice over five days. They were then killed and autopsied. If the mice had enlarged ovaries or signs of recently ovulating, then the test subject was pregnant.
