How to Make an At-Home Pregnancy Test

Find out if you're pregnant, before you look like this

Women had ways to diagnose pregnancy before home-pregnancy tests were invented. (Do you think your Grandmother and her friends were overflowing with patience?) But in the old days, making a home-pregnancy test was a bit more complicated.

Things You'll Need

• Rabbit or African clawed frog
• Hypodermic needle
• Wheat and barley seeds

Instructions

1. 

   Take the advice given on an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic scroll and urinate on wheat and barley seeds for several days. If they grow, the test is positive. Modern scientists have theorized that hormones like estrogen could make the seeds sprout faster, and in informal tests, it provided an accurate diagnosis 70 percent of the time. The Egyptians went on to say that if the barley grew, the baby would be a boy, and if the wheat grew, it would be a girl.

2. 

   Inject your urine into a rabbit. If the rabbit dies, you can be certain that the human pregnancy hormone, HCG, is present.

3. 

   Inject your urine into an African clawed frog. Apparently, within hours of being injected with the urine of a pregnant woman, these frogs will lay eggs. The frogs are poisonous, though, so be careful.

4. Inject your urine into a male rat or mouse. Over the next few days, his gonads will swell if you're pregnant.

Tips & Warnings

• These ideas are not medical advice. Planned Parenthood offers free pregnancy tests, and even dollar stores sell pregnancy tests that are going to be more reliable (and cheaper) than these methods.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• History of the Pregnancy Test Kit