Editing Pregnancy test (section)

==History==
[[File:JanSteen-Doctor'sVisit(1658-1662).jpg|thumb|right|220px|[[Jan Steen]]'s ''The Doctor's Visit''.  Included in this 17th-century painting is a depiction of a dubious pregnancy test: a ribbon dipped in the patient's urine and then burned.<ref>Clark, Stephanie Brown. (2005).[http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=10398 Jan Steen: The Doctor's Visit].''Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database.'' Retrieved 27 May 2007.<br />
Lubsen-Brandsma, M.A. (1997). [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9555144&dopt=Abstract Jan Steen's fire pot; pregnancy test or gynecological therapeutic method in the 17th century?]. ''Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd, 141(51),'' 2513–7. Retrieved 24 May 2006.<br />
"[http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/s/steen/page1/doctor_v.html The Doctor's Visit]." (n.d.). ''The Web Gallery of Art.'' Retrieved 24 May 2006.</ref>]]
Records of attempts at pregnancy testing have been found as far back as the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] and [[ancient Egypt]]ian cultures. The ancient Egyptians watered bags of [[wheat]] and [[barley]] with the urine of a possibly pregnant person. Germination indicated pregnancy. The type of grain that sprouted was taken as an indicator of the fetus's sex.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Ghalioungui|first1=P.|last2=Khalil|first2=SH.|last3=Ammar|first3=A. R.|title=On an Ancient Egyptian Method of Diagnosing Pregnancy and Determining Foetal Sex|date=July 1963|journal=Medical History|volume=7|issue=3|pages=241–6|doi=10.1017/s0025727300028386|issn=0025-7273|pmc=1034829|pmid=13960613}}</ref> [[Hippocrates]] suggested that a person who had missed their period should drink a solution of [[honey]] in water at bedtime: resulting abdominal distention and cramps would indicate the presence of a pregnancy. [[Avicenna]] and many physicians after him in the [[Middle Ages]] performed ''[[uroscopy]]'', a nonscientific method to evaluate urine.

[[Selmar Aschheim]] and [[Bernhard Zondek]] introduced testing based on the presence of [[human chorionic gonadotropin]] (hCG) in 1928.<ref>{{cite book | last = Speert | first = Harold | title = Iconographia Gyniatrica | publisher = F. A. Davis | year = 1973 | location = Philadelphia | isbn = 978-0-8036-8070-8 }}</ref> Early studies of hCG had concluded that it was produced by the [[pituitary gland]]. In the 1930s, Doctor [[Georgeanna Jones]] discovered that hCG was produced not by the pituitary gland, but by the [[placenta]]. This discovery was important in relying on hCG as an early marker of pregnancy.<ref name="jones obit">{{cite journal | vauthors = Damewood MD, Rock JA | title = In memoriam: Georgeanna Seegar Jones, M.D.: her legacy lives on | journal = Fertility and Sterility | volume = 84 | issue = 2 | pages = 541–2 | date = August 2005 | pmid = 16363033 | doi = 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2005.04.019 | url = http://www.jonesinstitutefoundation.org/downloads/GeorgeannaJones.pdf | publisher = American Society for Reproductive Medicine | access-date = 31 December 2007  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081209064615/http://www.jonesinstitutefoundation.org/downloads/GeorgeannaJones.pdf | archive-date = 9 December 2008 }}</ref> In the Aschheim and Zondek test, an infantile female [[mouse]] was injected subcutaneously with urine of the person to be tested, and the mouse later was killed and dissected. Presence of [[ovulation]] indicated that the urine contained hCG and meant that the subject was pregnant. A similar test was developed [[Rabbit test|using immature rabbits]].

At the beginning of the 1930s, [[Hillel Abbe Shapiro|Hillel Shapiro]] and Harry Zwarenstein, who were researchers at the [[University of Cape Town]], discovered that if urine from a pregnant person was injected into the South African ''[[Xenopus]]'' frog and the frog ovulated, this indicated that the subject was pregnant. This test, known as the [[frog test]], was used throughout the world from the 1930s to 1960s, with ''Xenopus'' frogs being exported in great numbers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Christophers|first=S. R.|date=16 November 1946|title=The Government Lymph Establishment|journal=Br Med J|language=en|volume=2|issue=4480|page=752|doi=10.1136/bmj.2.4480.752|issn=0007-1447|pmc=2054716}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Shapiro|first1=H. A.|last2=Zwarenstein|first2=H.|date=19 May 1934|title=A Rapid Test for Pregnancy on Xenopus lævis|journal=Nature|language=En|volume=133|issue=3368|page=762|doi=10.1038/133762a0|bibcode=1934Natur.133..762S|s2cid=4123060|issn=0028-0836|doi-access=free}}</ref> Shapiro's advisor, [[Lancelot Hogben]], claimed to have developed the pregnancy test himself, but this was refuted by both Shapiro and Zwarenstein in a letter to the ''British Medical Journal''. A later article, independently authored, granted Hogben credit for the principle of using ''Xenopus'' to determine gonadotropin levels in a pregnant person's urine, but not for its usage as a functional pregnancy test.<ref>Gurdon, J B; Hopwood, N (1 February 2003). "The introduction of Xenopus laevis into developmental biology: of empire, pregnancy testing and ribosomal genes". ''International Journal of Developmental Biology''. '''44''' (1). [[International Standard Serial Number|ISSN]] 0214-6282</ref>

Hormonal pregnancy tests such as [[Primodos]] and [[Duogynon]] were used in the 1960s and 1970s in the UK and Germany. These tests involved taking a dosed amount of hormones, and observing the response a few days later. A pregnant person does not react, as they are producing the hormones in pregnancy; a subject who is not pregnant responds to the absence of the hormone by beginning a new menstrual cycle. While the test was (is) generally considered accurate, research advancements have replaced it with simpler techniques.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.muvs.org/contraception/pregnancy-tests/duogynon-id1614|title=Museum für Verhütung und Schwangerschaftsabbruch - Museum of Contraception and Abortion|first=Christian|last=Fiala|date=29 March 2018|website=en.muvs.org|access-date=29 March 2018|archive-date=30 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330075947/http://en.muvs.org/contraception/pregnancy-tests/duogynon-id1614|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Immunologic pregnancy tests were introduced in 1960 when Wide and [[Carl Axel Gemzell|Gemzell]] presented a test based on in-vitro hemagglutination inhibition. This was a first step away from in-vivo pregnancy testing<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yzrOivXR75QC&q=carl+gemzell&pg=PT33  |vauthors=Bleavins MR, Carini C, Malle JR, Rahbari R | title=Biomarkers in Drug Development: A Handbook of Practice, Application, and Strategy, Chapter 1, Blood and Urine Chemistry | publisher=John Wiley and Sons|  year=2010 |  isbn=978-0-470-16927-8}}</ref><ref name="Wide2005"/> and initiated a series of improvements in pregnancy testing leading to the contemporary at-home testing.<ref name="Wide2005">{{cite journal | author = Wide L | title = Inventions leading to the development of the diagnostic test kit industry — from the modern pregnancy test to the sandwich assays | journal = Upsala Journal of Medical Sciences | volume = 110 | issue = 3 | pages = 193–216 | year = 2005 | pmid = 16454158 | doi=10.3109/2000-1967-066| doi-access = free }}</ref> Direct measurement of [[antigen]]s, such as hCG, was made possible after the invention of the [[radioimmunoassay]] in 1959.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Yalow RS, Berson SA | title = Immunoassay of endogenous plasma insulin in man | journal = Journal of Clinical Investigation | volume = 39 | issue = 7 | pages = 1157–75 | date = July 1960 | pmid = 13846364 | pmc = 441860 | doi = 10.1172/JCI104130 }}</ref> Radioimmunoassays require sophisticated apparatus and special radiation precautions and are expensive.

[[Organon International]] obtained the first patent on a home pregnancy test in 1969, two years after product designer [[Margaret Crane]] noticed that the laboratory testing procedure was relatively simple and made a prototype.  The product became available in Canada in 1971, and the United States in 1977, after delays caused by concerns over sexual morality and the ability of potentially pregnant people to perform the test and cope with the results without a doctor.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/opinion/sunday/could-women-be-trusted-with-their-own-pregnancy-tests.html|title=Could Women Be Trusted With Their Own Pregnancy Tests?|last=Kennedy|first=Pagan|date=29 July 2016|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=12 December 2016}}</ref>

Another home pregnancy testing kit was based on the work of [[Judith Vaitukaitis]] and Glenn Braunstein, who developed a sensitive hCG assay at the [[National Institutes of Health]].<ref name=Vaitukaitis>{{cite journal|last1=Vaitukaitis|first1=JL|title=Development of the home pregnancy test|journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences|date=December 2004|volume=1038|issue=1 |pages=220–2|pmid=15838116|doi=10.1196/annals.1315.030|bibcode=2004NYASA1038..220V|s2cid=29315420|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1235870}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=History of the Pregnancy Test Kit - Home Page|url=https://history.nih.gov/exhibits/thinblueline/index.html|website=history.nih.gov|access-date=4 May 2020}}</ref> That test went onto the market in 1978.<ref name=Thin-Blue-Line>{{cite web|last1=A Thin Blue Line: The History of the Pregnancy Test Kit|title=A Timeline of Pregnancy Testing|url=http://history.nih.gov/exhibits/thinblueline/timeline.html|publisher=National Institutes of Health|access-date=15 March 2015}}</ref>
In the 1970s, the discovery of [[monoclonal antibodies]] led to the development of the relatively simple and cheap [[immunoassay]]s, such as agglutination-inhibition-based assays and [[ELISA#Sandwich ELISA|sandwich ELISA]], used in modern home pregnancy tests.  Tests are now so cheap that they can be mass-produced in a general publication and used for advertising.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Nudd|first1=Ti|title=Ikea Wants You to Pee on This Ad. If You're Pregnant, It Will Give You a Discount on a Crib|url=http://www.adweek.com/creativity/ikea-wants-you-to-pee-on-this-ad-if-youre-pregnant-it-will-give-you-a-discount-on-a-crib/|access-date=13 January 2018|work=[[Adweek]]|date=9 January 2018}}</ref>