These Ancient Pregnancy Tests Actually Worked More Often than Not
When the ancient Egyptian pee-on-wheat-and-barley pregnancy test was subjected to scientific examination via modern methodology in 1963, it turned out that there might actually have been something to it. To be sure, the test did not accurately predict whether the fetus was male or female. However, it did not do too badly when it came to the detection of whether a woman was pregnant or not. Seventy percent of the time, the urine of pregnant women actually promoted growth in wheat and barley.
By contrast, the urine of non-pregnant women (and men) did not have a positive impact on the plants’ growth. It was the earliest known example of testing for pregnancy by detecting something unique in the urine of pregnant women. Scholars identified this test as the first recorded in history to work along the lines of modern pregnancy tests that work by identifying something in the urine of pregnant women that is not present in the urine or those who are not with child. The elevated levels of estrogen in pregnant women’s urine might have been the key to the test’s success.