Domestic Pregnancy Test - Myth or Truth?

The earliest account we know of a home pregnancy test comes from ancient Egypt, in the year 1350 BC A test described in a papyrus said that the woman suspected to be pregnant should urinate on wheat seeds and barley. If the wheat flourish, his wife was pregnant with a girl. Already were barley to flourish, pregnancy was a boy. If neither grew up, this was a sign that the woman was not pregnant.

Woman and pregnancy test
Woman and pregnancy test

In the 1960s, a time when there was a wealth of scientifically proven pregnancy tests we have today, a group of scientists decided to test the test described in the ancient papyrus. Amazingly, the study showed that the test correctly answered at presence of the pregnancy in about 70% of cases, a percentage far from brilliant, but certainly showed some success, which could not be explained by chance alone. At the time, the large concentration of estrogen in the urine of pregnant ended up being the explanation for this fact.

This report is interesting because it shows that the ancients already recognized (or at least imagined) the role of urine in the diagnosis of pregnancy. Also draws attention the fact that over 3,000 years later, many people still use home methods, not based on scientific method, to try to diagnose a pregnancy.

So if a home test designed by people as old and as primitive scientific knowledge may present some degree of effectiveness, what is the real usefulness of home pregnancy tests as propagated by the Internet?

In this article we make a criticism of the most popular home pregnancy tests, including the test bleach, boiling, chlorine, vinegar and toothpaste.

Scientifically proven pregnancy tests

If you are a person seeking information only on pregnancy tests whose reliability is scientifically proven, so none of the homemade tests that will be described in this article is for you. None, absolutely none, is based on scientific premises.

Before we proceed with the explanation of the home tests, let's just remember what are the pregnancy tests properly researched and proven by science.

The most reliable pregnancy test there is the dosage of hCG hormone in the blood. The hit rate is close to 100% when the woman is already at least one day of missed period. Its major disadvantage is the fact that it is a laboratory test that need a blood sample.

The pharmaceutical tests are simpler than blood test, since they can be made at home and require only a sample of urine. The ability to identify the presence of hCG is slightly lower than blood tests, but is still quite high. The hit rate is very high if the test is done at least 5 days of missed period. Currently, a pharmacy pregnancy test costs somewhere around 5-20 reais, depending on the brand.

Pregnancy test with bleach

How is the pregnancy test with bleach:

The test of bleach is simple, you simply mix in a container the urine of women with a little bleach. If the bubble solution or change color, the test is positive and indicates that you are pregnant.

The test reportedly is based on the indirect detection of hCG hormone, which react with bleach causing the changes described above.

Review the pregnancy of bleach test:

When we do a quick search by Google looking for information about the home test of bleach, we face a serious problem, which is also present in almost every home tests that will describe: a complete lack of standardization and methodology.

Note that there is no suitable container, depending on the source, it may be a glass of plastic, glass, acrylic, ceramics... There is also no correlation between the amounts of urine and bleach. The most appropriate concentration of bleach is not described and no one also says from that moment (how many days late period, for example) the test must be done.

This lack of methodology alone would be enough to make the test unreliable. Anyone who has had any contact with laboratory work know that a small change in concentration of a reactant may be sufficient to completely change a result.

But there is an even more serious problem with this test. Urine is rich in urea and has variable amounts of ammonia. The reaction of these substances into contact with sodium hypochlorite (bleach) is well known. The bubbles are generated by the production of chloramine and chlorine gas. Besides the reaction has nothing to do with the hCG pregnancy hormone, both substances are very toxic if inhaled. In some cases, the amount of toxic gases produced to be relevant, resulting in a great reaction and extremely unpleasant odor.

The test appears to be positive for some and negative for others, as they were pregnant or not, just by the lack of standardization. Quantities and different concentrations of bleach, combined with different amounts and concentrations of urine may generate more or less intense reactions. The test can be positive in both men and women.


The pregnancy test of bleach not only does not work, as can still generate toxic gases and vapors.

Chlorine pregnancy test

How chlorine pregnancy test is done:

Chlorine test consists of mixing in a container the urine of women with chlorine. If the bubble solution or change color, the test is positive and indicates that you are pregnant.

Review chlorine pregnancy test:

In fact, chlorine test is only one variation of the bleach test, since both substances contains the chemical element chlorine as a main component. As with the bleach, natural substances urine react with chlorine and produce toxic gases such as trichloramine and cyanogen chloride. The color change and foaming are the result of this reaction. It has nothing to do with the presence of hCG hormone in urine.

Just as a curiosity, you know why in some pools feel a strong smell of chlorine and our eyes burn and turn red? Not because these pools have excess chlorine, but because they are contaminated with large amounts of urine and sweat. The strong odor of chlorine and irritated eyes occur by toxic substances produced by mixing urine and sweat with the pool chlorine.


The chlorine pregnancy test not only does not work, as can still generate toxic gases and vapors.

Toothpaste pregnancy test

How is the toothpaste pregnancy test:

In a transparent cup, you should mix the urine with a small amount of white toothpaste (does not serve colored). If after 2 minutes the white paste becomes bluish or starts to foam, the test is positive.

Criticism pregnancy test of toothpaste:

The test toothpaste seems a little bit more standardized than the bleach still discrepancies between the amount of toothpaste and urine are easily found.

The test does not. The color change does not occur in most cases, even when a woman is pregnant. Since foaming is common and occurs even with the urine men. The foam is a reaction of the acid with the alkaline urine toothpaste. Some toothpastes also have lauryl ether sulfate, a substance that facilitates the formation of foam. The more alkaline the folder and is more acidic urine is, the greater the chance of reactions.


The pregnancy test the toothpaste does not. Positive and negative results occur randomly, according to the composition of the slurry and the acidity of urine.

Urine pregnancy test boil

How the boiling of the urine test is done:

The boil test is to use an aluminum pan to boil urine. If urine and milk boiling, creating a supernatant, the test is positive. If boiling water as the test is negative.

Review the test of boiling urine:

Urine is a liquid rich in various substances, unlike water, which is primarily water and trace amounts of some minerals. The substances present in the urine have different boiling points, unlike pure water, which boils evenly. It is expected that the boiling characteristics are even different. Your urine will only boil much like water if it is too diluted. For this, you need to drink plenty of water throughout the day.
So the boil test will be positive for most people, even non-pregnant women and men.


The boil test does not work and gives positive in most cases.

Vinegar pregnancy test

How the vinegar test is done:

The vinegar test is made by mixing urine and vinegar in a transparent container. If the solution changes color or foaming, the test is positive. If you do not change color, it is negative.

Review the test of vinegar:

The behave vinegar is acetic acid, which is a weak acid. Urine is also a mildly acidic substance. In general, mixing of the two substances causes no reaction at all, except for the color change that occurs over because the vinegar has different shade or color of urine. Incidentally, this is one of the test problems, there is no standardization of the type of vinegar to use.

In some clinical situations, the urine may become alkaline, which would favor the occurrence of reactions with acetic acid. But this has nothing to do with the presence or absence of the hormone hCG in the urine.


The test vinegar does not work.

Conclusion on the home pregnancy tests

We chose 5 tests as example, on the Internet but there are dozens of them. There is also the needle test, Coca Cola test, Pine Sol test, Pepper test, etc. No need to mention one by one, for all are fallacious and do not follow the scientific method.

The truth is that the urine of pregnant in early pregnancy is basically the same as the urine of non-pregnant women. The difference is in the presence of hCG hormone that is found in very low concentrations in the early days. Even if these tests had any scientific basis behind, hardly they would be able to detect such small amounts of hCG hormone.

The blood test that is more sensitive pregnancy test for all uses highly modern laboratory techniques developed over decades. So it is able to identify minimum levels of hCG circulating in maternal blood.

If you suspect you may be pregnant, but did not want to go to a lab draw blood, buy a pharmacy pregnancy test. They are inexpensive, reliable, and provide the results in a few minutes. No use getting messing pot or cup with urine, or spending the chemicals that you are home. None of them work and, as we have seen, may even do harm by releasing toxic fumes.

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