A pregnancy test
can determine whether a woman is pregnant or not. There are records which show that pregnancy testing has been conceived way back in the ancient Greek and Egyptian culture. Ancient Egyptian used to water the wheat and barley bags with urine of the pregnant woman. Germination used to indicate that she is pregnant. However, modern pregnancy tests opt for chemical markers which are associated with pregnancy. The markers are found in the blood and the urine and the tests require these substances to check whether the woman is pregnant or not.
First markers were discovered in 1930 and known as human chorionic gonadotropin. However, in the present scenario, obstetric ULtra sonography is used to detect pregnancy. This was at first practiced in 1960s. Pregnancy test can provide the instant result after fertilization and is a rosette inhibition assay for early pregnancy factor in a woman. This is detected in the blood within forty eight hours of fertilization. But, such testing are time consuming and expensive.
Most of the chemical tests for pregnancy can look for the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin in the woman’s urine or blood. With obstetric ultra sonography, one can detect the pregnancy stage and the due date too. A lot of home pregnancy tests are purely based on lateral flow technology.






