He was referring to the challenge of choosing the graphic that would appear on the test to signify a pregnancy. Unlike medical tests that reveal something otherwise unknowable about a body, a pregnancy test can only speed the delivery of information; regardless of who pees on what, a pregnancy has other, more obvious ways of making itself known with time.
At that point, Our Bodies, Ourselves was six years old, and abortion had been legal in the U. But in any revolution, even a private little one, something is being overthrown. In this case, it was the authority of doctors, not all of whom were happy about a changing status quo. Unregulated tests had already been recalled several times before the FDA approved the e. Tests could be used incorrectly; they could be flat-out wrong; putting them in the hands of the patients, they argued, would harm more than it would help.
Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. Account Profile. Sign Out. Tags: pregnancy tests women getting it done reproductive rights inventions.
Most Viewed Stories. I learn something totally new and challenging on sites thanks preggophilia. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Currently you have JavaScript disabled. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser. Figure 1 : A timeline of pregnancy testing. From ancient Egypt to today, the urine-based pregnancy test has improved in speed, accuracy, and feasibility. The oldest known test involved urinating on grain seeds and seeing if they sprouted.
These tests required shipping urine to a lab and took at least a week to get results. The first stick tests similar to at-home tests on the market today were developed in Figure 2 : Hormone levels during the menstrual cycle and pregnancy. All successful urine-based pregnancy tests have detected hormones, which are secreted into the urine. During the menstrual cycle right , the reproductive system changes throughout the month.
Hormones signal for each of these changes to happen left-top. Most notably, high levels of lutenizing hormone stimulate ovulation. When a woman becomes pregnant, her reproductive system must change in a different way to support the growing fetus.
Because of this similarity, hCG can send an ovulation signal, causing animals to ovulate when injected with the urine of pregnant women.
Figure 3 : Early antibody-based pregnancy tests. Early antibody-based pregnancy tests, including the first at-home tests, used hCG antibodies and hCG-decorated blood cells. If she was not pregnant, the hCG antibodies would stick to the hCG-decorated blood cells and to each other, causing the blood cells to clump together left. On the other hand, if the woman was pregnant, the high levels of hCG in her urine would stick to the hCG antibodies, preventing them from sticking to the blood cells right.
Therefore, if the woman was pregnant, her urine would prevent the blood cells from clumping. When reading the results of the test, the operator would look at whether the blood cells clumped to determine pregnancy.
Pee on a Stick: The birth of the modern pregnancy test Since the s, at-home pregnancy tests have become the norm, with about 20 million sold per year in the US alone. For more information: A Thin Blue Line : a pregnancy test history put together by the NIH An academic article about the science and culture of animal-based pregnancy tests An excellent, but hard-to-access, academic review article about the history of the pregnancy test, and a less-descriptive, but similar, open-access article An article in The Atlantic that describes the history of the pregnancy test from a more historical perspective A video explaining the science behind modern pregnancy tests Share this: Click to print Opens in new window Click to share on Facebook Opens in new window Click to share on Twitter Opens in new window Click to share on Reddit Opens in new window.
Woah very good blog and very informative. I absolutely love this site. Well researched and written! Glad to read what was happening behind the shocking headlines.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.
0コメント