1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,960
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

2
00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:10,000
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff Mom never told you?

3
00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:17,520
Speaker 1: From house stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to

4
00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:21,160
Speaker 1: the podcast. I am Caroline and I'm Kristen. So, Kristen,

5
00:00:21,440 --> 00:00:25,400
Speaker 1: do you like to garden? I would like to be

6
00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:27,400
Speaker 1: able to garden. Yeah. I don't have a much of

7
00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:30,360
Speaker 1: a green thumb, but sometimes, you know, I go to

8
00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:33,680
Speaker 1: Target or wherever and or the local gardening store and

9
00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:37,199
Speaker 1: pick up some seeds. Um. But the things that I

10
00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:39,800
Speaker 1: do with the seeds are a little bit different than

11
00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:43,240
Speaker 1: what they used to do with the seeds in ancient Egypt. Yes,

12
00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:48,199
Speaker 1: in terms of you probably water your seeds do whereas

13
00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:53,320
Speaker 1: in ancient Egypt you might have urinated on your seeds. Right,

14
00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:57,040
Speaker 1: And this is not actually about gardening today, we're talking

15
00:00:57,080 --> 00:01:01,000
Speaker 1: about pregnancy does Yes, the history of pregnancy tests. This

16
00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:06,640
Speaker 1: is um many times over requested podcast topic, and I'm

17
00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:09,600
Speaker 1: so glad that people have requested it because, as you

18
00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:13,080
Speaker 1: can probably imagine, pregnancy tests have a pretty colorful history,

19
00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:21,200
Speaker 1: tracing back to thirteen fifty BC in ancient Egypt and

20
00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:25,560
Speaker 1: where pregnancy tests involved urinating on seeds and This is

21
00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:30,880
Speaker 1: from a great timeline that we found from the National Institutes. Right,

22
00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,560
Speaker 1: they would women would urinate on barley seeds and wheat seeds,

23
00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:37,000
Speaker 1: and if the barley seeds sprouted, the woman was thought

24
00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,959
Speaker 1: to be carrying a boy, whereas if the wheat grew,

25
00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:44,319
Speaker 1: she would be painting her pyramid nursery pain. Uh. And

26
00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:48,400
Speaker 1: if neither sprouted, she supposedly would not be pregnant. Yeah,

27
00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:50,760
Speaker 1: and this sounds really ridiculous, like this would definitely not

28
00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:54,200
Speaker 1: work or have any sort of significance at all. But actually,

29
00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:57,840
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties and scientists tested this and found

30
00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:03,120
Speaker 1: that pregnant women's urine actually did promote seed growth, whereas

31
00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:05,200
Speaker 1: like if you were not pregnant or if you're a man,

32
00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:09,919
Speaker 1: no di y sevent of the time. So maybe we

33
00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:12,799
Speaker 1: should bring that back, go buy some wheat seeds. You know,

34
00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:15,679
Speaker 1: I'm just not going to go with that. That's just

35
00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:21,080
Speaker 1: not enough. But it would be a completely organic pregnancy

36
00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:23,799
Speaker 1: tests true, But what a mess? Well, I mean, where

37
00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:26,000
Speaker 1: did you keep it? I mean, I I don't really

38
00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,200
Speaker 1: want to answer that question in detail on this podcast.

39
00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:31,760
Speaker 1: You could you could somehow make it happen. But moving

40
00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:35,960
Speaker 1: on and also speaking and speaking of urine, because urine

41
00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:38,720
Speaker 1: comes up a lot in pregnancy tests, still have to

42
00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:40,720
Speaker 1: do it, and it's it go. This is actually one

43
00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:45,880
Speaker 1: of the earliest examples of primitive year analysis, which is

44
00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:49,200
Speaker 1: what pregnancy tests today are. It's just a form of

45
00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:52,639
Speaker 1: your analysis. But during the Middle Ages, and this is

46
00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:57,359
Speaker 1: up through the seventeenth century, some men who were called

47
00:02:57,440 --> 00:02:59,720
Speaker 1: and this is this is a little bit crass, but

48
00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:01,520
Speaker 1: this is actually what they were called. This is from

49
00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:04,360
Speaker 1: sided in National Institutes of Health. Google it. It's all

50
00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:08,360
Speaker 1: over the place. Piss profits. Right, These men called piss

51
00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:12,240
Speaker 1: profits would examine the color of someone's urine and the

52
00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:15,960
Speaker 1: description is horrific. Oh yeah, if a woman had and

53
00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:20,960
Speaker 1: this is wow, just so so specific. If a woman

54
00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:26,880
Speaker 1: had clear pale lemon color leaning toward off white, having

55
00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:33,480
Speaker 1: a cloud on its surface, Yeah, congratulations, you're pregnant because

56
00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:37,839
Speaker 1: you're urine is cloudy. Yeah. Um. Well. They'd also mix

57
00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,440
Speaker 1: wine with urine to test for any visible reaction that

58
00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:45,600
Speaker 1: might happen. And alcohol actually does react with certain proteins

59
00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:50,280
Speaker 1: in urine, so this might have been successful sometimes. Yeah.

60
00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:54,280
Speaker 1: The thing is these uh, these ancient medics were not

61
00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:59,320
Speaker 1: all that off base in their obsession with women's urine

62
00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:02,520
Speaker 1: to test for pregnancy. In the early twentieth century, scientists

63
00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:06,119
Speaker 1: identified two key hormones that have to do with pregnancy.

64
00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:09,680
Speaker 1: We've got progesterone, which is a hormone that promotes gest station,

65
00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:15,000
Speaker 1: and then they identified the hormone h c G human

66
00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:20,800
Speaker 1: choreonic gonadotropin, which is produced only when or shortly after

67
00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:23,719
Speaker 1: I should say a fertilized egg attaches to the uterine

68
00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:27,920
Speaker 1: lining right. And the same scientists who identified h c

69
00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:32,600
Speaker 1: G UH tested for pregnancy by injecting a woman's urine

70
00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:37,400
Speaker 1: into an immature rodent and if there was a reaction uh.

71
00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:40,719
Speaker 1: This is the so called a Z test because based

72
00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:45,120
Speaker 1: on their last names ash I'm and Zondeck. Could I

73
00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:48,440
Speaker 1: be pronouncing those corrects? I think? According to this test,

74
00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:51,039
Speaker 1: if the rodent went into heat despite its immaturity, it

75
00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:53,120
Speaker 1: would mean that the woman to whom the urine belonged

76
00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:57,320
Speaker 1: was preggers. And this is an example of a bioassay,

77
00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:02,359
Speaker 1: which means that some kind of chemical or hormone in

78
00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:08,320
Speaker 1: humans could have a reaction in another and animals the mammal,

79
00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:11,040
Speaker 1: but you can have a bio essay between between two

80
00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:14,280
Speaker 1: different animals. It doesn't just have to be human too rodent, right,

81
00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:19,040
Speaker 1: And this test was taken a step further by Lancelot Hogben,

82
00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:24,680
Speaker 1: who is not a fictional Harry Potter character Bin in

83
00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:28,279
Speaker 1: South Africa. He adapted the test to be conducted using frogs,

84
00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:31,120
Speaker 1: but for some reason that one really never took off.

85
00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:35,320
Speaker 1: The probably kept hopping away. Uh. But then in the

86
00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:39,040
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties we have Dr Maurice Friedman at the University

87
00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:43,760
Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania discover that injecting yearine into a female rabbit

88
00:05:44,279 --> 00:05:49,440
Speaker 1: could detect pregnancy. Hence we have the rabbit test, which

89
00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:51,440
Speaker 1: is why. And I don't want to I don't want

90
00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:53,680
Speaker 1: to give away anything for those of you who have

91
00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:56,120
Speaker 1: not caught up with all your mad men, I've never

92
00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:59,440
Speaker 1: seen it. Well, it takes place, as you probably know,

93
00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:04,080
Speaker 1: in the sixties, and there is a character who at

94
00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:06,960
Speaker 1: some point has to go get a rabbit test man

95
00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:09,080
Speaker 1: they were still doing in the sixties. Yeah, and that's

96
00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:10,880
Speaker 1: what what made me, what made me think about it.

97
00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:14,680
Speaker 1: And there's also an episode of mash Yeah with Hot

98
00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:16,680
Speaker 1: Lips or Hot Lips has to go and they want

99
00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:21,080
Speaker 1: to kill radars rabbit yeah. Um yeah, Well basically this

100
00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:27,120
Speaker 1: test works by injecting urine again into a rabbit, and

101
00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:30,080
Speaker 1: if hCG is present, it tricks the rabbit's body into

102
00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:34,400
Speaker 1: thinking it's pregnant and stimulates the ovaries and um. It

103
00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:37,800
Speaker 1: kind of spurs the growth of these tissue structures called

104
00:06:37,839 --> 00:06:43,320
Speaker 1: the corpora lutia and corpora him or agica um. But

105
00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:45,680
Speaker 1: or fortunately for the rabbit, the only way to tell

106
00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:50,760
Speaker 1: if the things were growing is to youthanize and dissect. Yes. Um.

107
00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:53,760
Speaker 1: So that's why there was a common phrase the rabbit

108
00:06:53,839 --> 00:06:57,440
Speaker 1: died to say that a woman is pregnant. It's sort

109
00:06:57,480 --> 00:06:59,720
Speaker 1: of a grim way to announce your pregnant, right, because

110
00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:01,880
Speaker 1: it has to do. But the thing is, though this

111
00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:04,719
Speaker 1: was I think from snopes dot com. They were clearing

112
00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:08,400
Speaker 1: up the phrase of the rabbit is dying meaning that

113
00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:12,000
Speaker 1: a woman is definitely pregnant. Because the thing is, if

114
00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:14,960
Speaker 1: the rabbit died, she could be pregnant or not, because

115
00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:19,760
Speaker 1: no matter what test it the rabbits, the rabbit always dies,

116
00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:24,760
Speaker 1: whether you're pregnant or not. Um. We get into more

117
00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:30,000
Speaker 1: non animal science, non involving rabbits and the right. In

118
00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:33,960
Speaker 1: the seventies UM, when greater strides were made towards the

119
00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:37,679
Speaker 1: tests were more familiar with now UM scientists still weren't

120
00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:40,480
Speaker 1: exactly sure about the role of hCG and normal pregnancy,

121
00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:44,720
Speaker 1: or what normal level should be. But in six the

122
00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:47,520
Speaker 1: f d A f d A approval was sought for

123
00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:50,440
Speaker 1: the early pregnancy tests, which actually became known as the

124
00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:55,240
Speaker 1: Error Proof Test or EPT, and uh in nineteen seventy

125
00:07:55,280 --> 00:07:57,800
Speaker 1: seven EPT was ready for the US market. Yeah, and

126
00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:01,760
Speaker 1: we can we have actually cancer search to thank for

127
00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:07,040
Speaker 1: the home pregnancy tests because hCG shows up when a

128
00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:10,280
Speaker 1: woman or when a Ferlie's egg attaches to the uterine lining,

129
00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:12,920
Speaker 1: like I said earlier, but it also shows up in

130
00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:17,080
Speaker 1: the development of certain cancers. So some scientists were looking

131
00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:20,080
Speaker 1: into whether or not they could develop some sort of

132
00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:24,640
Speaker 1: early cancer detection tests in along the way, we're able

133
00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:29,240
Speaker 1: at the same time to develop these home pregnancy tests UM, which,

134
00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:32,160
Speaker 1: as you can imagine, this isn't too too long after

135
00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:36,280
Speaker 1: birth control arrives on the market. What was it nineteen

136
00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:39,880
Speaker 1: seventy two is the year I want to say, when

137
00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:44,319
Speaker 1: it became available to married and unmarried women alike. Uh.

138
00:08:44,440 --> 00:08:47,000
Speaker 1: So then you have a few years later following on that,

139
00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:51,280
Speaker 1: the at home pregnancy tests and like you said in

140
00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:56,600
Speaker 1: n becomes advertised in major women's magazines, including Mademoiselle, McCall's

141
00:08:56,679 --> 00:08:59,600
Speaker 1: read book, etcetera. Right, so it was pretty much widespread

142
00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:02,480
Speaker 1: and except did by then. And actually one article in

143
00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:05,600
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine and one of these women's magazines said

144
00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:07,439
Speaker 1: it was you know, it was giving props to the

145
00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:10,679
Speaker 1: home pregnancy test because it said that it protected women's

146
00:09:10,679 --> 00:09:13,719
Speaker 1: privacy who didn't want their doctors to know they were

147
00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:16,280
Speaker 1: sexually active. Right, because they could still be taboo to

148
00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:18,520
Speaker 1: go if you're a single woman to go into your

149
00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:21,280
Speaker 1: doctor's office and have to get a pregnancy test and

150
00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:25,440
Speaker 1: then be slight shamed by your gynecologists, that's not that's

151
00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:28,640
Speaker 1: no fun. And one of the one of the advertisements

152
00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:31,720
Speaker 1: from this is coming from nineteen seventy eight in Mademoiselle says,

153
00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:34,839
Speaker 1: for your ten dollars, you get a pre measured you

154
00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:38,040
Speaker 1: get pre measured ingredients consisting of a vial of purified water,

155
00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:42,320
Speaker 1: a test tube containing, among other things, sheep red blood cells,

156
00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:45,520
Speaker 1: as well as a medical dropper, and a clear plastic

157
00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:48,079
Speaker 1: support for the test tube with an angled mirror at

158
00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:50,400
Speaker 1: the bottom. You can pretend to be a scientist. Yes,

159
00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:52,120
Speaker 1: you have to be a little bit of a scientist.

160
00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:55,199
Speaker 1: And there is a description of a woman who had, uh,

161
00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:57,520
Speaker 1: you know, she was recalling taking one of these very

162
00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:01,320
Speaker 1: early at home pregnancy tests, and she said that it

163
00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:03,640
Speaker 1: really wasn't that easy to use, as you can imagine

164
00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:06,360
Speaker 1: from all of the things that come in this box

165
00:10:06,400 --> 00:10:08,880
Speaker 1: for your ten dollars, She said, you pretty much felt

166
00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:12,040
Speaker 1: like a chemist. And you had to put the drops

167
00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:14,680
Speaker 1: of urine into a tube and shake it up, and

168
00:10:14,679 --> 00:10:16,560
Speaker 1: put a stick with white beads in it, and hold

169
00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:18,679
Speaker 1: the tube and turned upside down. There's no way I

170
00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:23,240
Speaker 1: would enough. Yeah, so, uh, it has since come a

171
00:10:23,320 --> 00:10:25,959
Speaker 1: long way, and in two thousand three, the f d

172
00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:30,120
Speaker 1: A approved clear Blue Easies digital pregnancy tests that got

173
00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:32,280
Speaker 1: rid of the line that she had to detect and

174
00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:36,000
Speaker 1: just says pregnant not pregnant, right, easy enough? Yeah, I

175
00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:39,480
Speaker 1: mean I would still take fifty. I would make sure

176
00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:42,240
Speaker 1: to get fifty. I pull a Murphy Brown. Well that's

177
00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:47,360
Speaker 1: a good yes, I did just reference TV show. Collaborate

178
00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:50,240
Speaker 1: on your Murphy Brown reference. Please no Murphy Brown in

179
00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:54,600
Speaker 1: a in an episode of your own, took what was

180
00:10:54,640 --> 00:10:57,000
Speaker 1: it twenty or twenty one pregnancy tests and then they

181
00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:00,000
Speaker 1: were all positive, So I would absolutely murphy out. We'll see.

182
00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,080
Speaker 1: That was the question that I had as I was

183
00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:08,520
Speaker 1: researching home pregnancy tests. Accuracy. Can we trust these tests?

184
00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:13,600
Speaker 1: And they're they're pretty reliable. According to web MD, web

185
00:11:13,640 --> 00:11:15,880
Speaker 1: and B suggests you take a pregnancy test when you

186
00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:21,160
Speaker 1: experience in this period nausea, breast tenderness, fatigue, right, and

187
00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:24,360
Speaker 1: but most sources also suggest you wait until after you've

188
00:11:24,400 --> 00:11:26,840
Speaker 1: missed a period, because if you take it any earlier,

189
00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:29,240
Speaker 1: the level of hCG could be too low, or the

190
00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:32,160
Speaker 1: embryo might not have been implanted yet. So all these

191
00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:34,840
Speaker 1: tests that say oh yeah, nine accuracy, like the day

192
00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:37,480
Speaker 1: after you have sex, I'd wait a little bit. Yeah,

193
00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:39,200
Speaker 1: you might want to You might want to wait. And

194
00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:41,480
Speaker 1: also you have to take into account if you've had

195
00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:43,959
Speaker 1: a lot of liquids right before you take your tests,

196
00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:49,839
Speaker 1: it could dilute the result. Um. And here's here's the

197
00:11:49,880 --> 00:11:54,599
Speaker 1: one thing about home pregnancy tests that is a little

198
00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:58,880
Speaker 1: a little troubling. A false negative saying that you are

199
00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:02,200
Speaker 1: not pregnant when in act you are, is more common.

200
00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:07,680
Speaker 1: It's more common than a false positive, especially if, like

201
00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:10,280
Speaker 1: you said, Caroline, if you take the tests a little

202
00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:14,560
Speaker 1: too soon, um, before you've missed that that first period, right.

203
00:12:14,679 --> 00:12:18,640
Speaker 1: And actually, there are several things that can affect whether

204
00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:23,480
Speaker 1: you get the correct answer. UM, if you're taking fertility

205
00:12:23,559 --> 00:12:28,360
Speaker 1: drugs that contain hCG, you risk getting a false positive. UM. Also,

206
00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:31,839
Speaker 1: if you've recently been pregnant, if you have ovarian cysts,

207
00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:34,319
Speaker 1: have experienced an eck topic pregnancy, or if you're a

208
00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:37,640
Speaker 1: menopausal you risk getting a false positive. So those are

209
00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:40,000
Speaker 1: just some some things to keep in mind. It's not

210
00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:43,480
Speaker 1: saying that home pregnancy tests aren't very reliable. You just

211
00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:45,440
Speaker 1: have to, you know, keep in mind that there are

212
00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:48,040
Speaker 1: a lot of different things going on to detect that

213
00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:50,520
Speaker 1: actually detect that hc G. And I just want to

214
00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:55,840
Speaker 1: assure people that UM, most medicines do not affect pregnancy tests,

215
00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:58,959
Speaker 1: and so if you're on birth control or antibiotics, don't worry.

216
00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:01,800
Speaker 1: And even though we have just outlined a number of

217
00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:08,280
Speaker 1: caveats about home pregnancy tests, statistically they are nine accurate

218
00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:11,640
Speaker 1: if you follow the directions carefully. And of course, as

219
00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:15,480
Speaker 1: we always say in the podcast with anything related to

220
00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:18,880
Speaker 1: the female body, if you're concerned, go see your doctor,

221
00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:21,560
Speaker 1: Go see your nurse practitioner. Get a year in tests there,

222
00:13:21,679 --> 00:13:24,240
Speaker 1: or you can go take a blood test, which is

223
00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:27,200
Speaker 1: performed at a doctor's office, which is used less often,

224
00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:30,920
Speaker 1: but it can detect pregnancy earlier, although it takes longer

225
00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:32,400
Speaker 1: to get the results. Right, So, if you want to

226
00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:35,120
Speaker 1: be really sure and you're okay with waiting, yeah, definitely

227
00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:37,800
Speaker 1: go to your doctor. Yeah, absolutely. Um. And of course

228
00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:40,679
Speaker 1: if your pregnancy tests says that you're pregnant, then you

229
00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:45,480
Speaker 1: should doctor. That's a that's a good time. But here's

230
00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:50,719
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Um. We found this article on feminism

231
00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:53,439
Speaker 1: and home pregnancy tests asking the question of whether or

232
00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:58,120
Speaker 1: not home pregnant home pregnancy tests are a feminist technology,

233
00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:01,760
Speaker 1: and I fully expected the answer to be a resounding yes. Yeah.

234
00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:05,040
Speaker 1: And Lynda Lane, Uh, the article is called the home

235
00:14:05,040 --> 00:14:10,320
Speaker 1: pregnancy test a feminist technology question mark. Um, she says no,

236
00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:14,240
Speaker 1: but they're not because it takes away women's autonomy and

237
00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:17,600
Speaker 1: self knowledge. Right, Because going into this research, I expected

238
00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:20,240
Speaker 1: it to assume that the answer would be yes, because

239
00:14:20,840 --> 00:14:23,840
Speaker 1: I think you mentioned earlier that one of the articles

240
00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:26,800
Speaker 1: from nine says, finally, women, we don't have to you know,

241
00:14:26,880 --> 00:14:28,560
Speaker 1: you don't have to get risk going to the doctor

242
00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:32,120
Speaker 1: and being shamed if you need to take a pregnancy test,

243
00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:38,120
Speaker 1: but she says that home pregnancy tests have actually kind

244
00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:42,320
Speaker 1: of undercut the need for better women's health care and

245
00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:45,000
Speaker 1: prenatal care because we can now just go to the

246
00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:50,000
Speaker 1: drug store and for ten bucks fifteen bucks go by

247
00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:51,640
Speaker 1: a home pregnancy test, or you can even get like

248
00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:54,840
Speaker 1: a value pack a pregnancy test and and take care

249
00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:58,400
Speaker 1: of it like that. And she says that fifteen confirmed

250
00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:03,239
Speaker 1: pregnancies and end early spontaneous abortion a k A miscarriage,

251
00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:05,600
Speaker 1: and since most occur within the first weeks of pregnancy,

252
00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:08,280
Speaker 1: she argues that there are advantages to take performing the

253
00:15:08,280 --> 00:15:11,400
Speaker 1: test later, which there are. I mean, that's like we said,

254
00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:14,040
Speaker 1: you need to wait until you miss that first period,

255
00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:18,560
Speaker 1: probably to get better. Yeah. She says that that, uh,

256
00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:22,520
Speaker 1: giving yourself a test too early could lead to undo stress,

257
00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:25,800
Speaker 1: whether you whether the pregnancy is wanted or whether it's not.

258
00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:29,240
Speaker 1: Because you know, let's say you do want to be pregnant,

259
00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:31,560
Speaker 1: you're very excited, you've been trying. You take that test

260
00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:34,800
Speaker 1: really early and it says positive, and then you're one

261
00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:39,120
Speaker 1: of those people who have an early miscarriage. That could

262
00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:41,400
Speaker 1: you know, be heartbreaking. But then you know, there's also

263
00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:44,840
Speaker 1: the other side where let's say somebody doesn't want this pregnancy,

264
00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:48,080
Speaker 1: it was not expected, then they've got to start thinking about,

265
00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:49,720
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, well, what am I gonna do? You know?

266
00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:51,080
Speaker 1: Am I going to have this baby? Am I not?

267
00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:53,760
Speaker 1: You know, a lot to think about when you know,

268
00:15:53,800 --> 00:15:56,240
Speaker 1: if you would just wait a while, you know well.

269
00:15:56,240 --> 00:16:00,000
Speaker 1: And Lane also argues that the availability of home pregnant

270
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:03,080
Speaker 1: schut kind of having that fail safe they're at the

271
00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:06,720
Speaker 1: drug store that anyone can go out and purchase, has

272
00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:12,080
Speaker 1: distracted us from paying closer attention to our bodies, to

273
00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:16,000
Speaker 1: our menstrual cycles, to our reproductive systems, and not paying

274
00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:21,200
Speaker 1: attention to the physical signs that might indicate pregnancy, instead

275
00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:26,520
Speaker 1: relying on massive drug companies to sell us these these

276
00:16:26,680 --> 00:16:30,040
Speaker 1: urine sticks. Yeah, she says, the only feminist pregnancy test

277
00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:33,480
Speaker 1: is to listen to your body, to all those things

278
00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:36,920
Speaker 1: that Web and d talked about, the misperiod, nausea, breath tenderness,

279
00:16:36,920 --> 00:16:39,840
Speaker 1: and fatigue. Although I think it's a compelling point, though,

280
00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:42,800
Speaker 1: she says that, uh, one feminist method to determine if

281
00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:45,560
Speaker 1: you're pregnant is by doing a pelvic self exam or

282
00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:48,440
Speaker 1: having I don't know, I don't know about that exactly.

283
00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:50,360
Speaker 1: I don't know how to do a pelvic self exam.

284
00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:52,160
Speaker 1: Maybe that you know this is a I don't. I

285
00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:55,360
Speaker 1: don't have a speculum lying around, yes, she says. Um,

286
00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:58,480
Speaker 1: a contributor to the National Institutes of Health website, recalls

287
00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:01,240
Speaker 1: having had a plastic speculum them around from the do

288
00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:04,160
Speaker 1: it Yourself Pelvic Exam days where they're doing it yourself

289
00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:07,480
Speaker 1: pelvic exam days, I missed them, apparently, and she said

290
00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:11,200
Speaker 1: she used to diagnose her first pregnancy by observing changes

291
00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:16,040
Speaker 1: in her cervix. I think that would be but but okay, okay,

292
00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:18,320
Speaker 1: that don't terrify, so calm me down. You do look

293
00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:22,720
Speaker 1: kind of terrified. But that would be pretty incredible to

294
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:26,200
Speaker 1: be that in tune with your body, that you can

295
00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:29,360
Speaker 1: observe the own changes in your service. I get where

296
00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:33,239
Speaker 1: Lane is coming from me. I think that I'm not

297
00:17:33,280 --> 00:17:36,040
Speaker 1: I'm not completely on board with this notion that home

298
00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:39,440
Speaker 1: pregnancy tests are anti feminists, but I get what she's saying.

299
00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:45,119
Speaker 1: I think that perhaps we should um expand the I

300
00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:48,240
Speaker 1: don't want to say arsenal because that sounds so militant.

301
00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:55,560
Speaker 1: Perhaps expand the resources available to us including perhaps do

302
00:17:55,600 --> 00:17:58,159
Speaker 1: it yourself pelvic self examples. I'm not doing it, and

303
00:17:58,359 --> 00:18:02,280
Speaker 1: I mean, but I'm not, Caroline Lane. Also, she also

304
00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:04,040
Speaker 1: says that a friend could help you do it. So

305
00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:08,560
Speaker 1: you know what, Kristen, what are you doing later? What? No?

306
00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:12,000
Speaker 1: I really I like my kind ofcologist. I've gone to

307
00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:14,800
Speaker 1: her for ten years. I will stick with her and

308
00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:18,520
Speaker 1: listeners out there if you have, if you have any

309
00:18:18,560 --> 00:18:21,199
Speaker 1: recollection of the do it yourself pelvic Exam days, or

310
00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:27,200
Speaker 1: if you're familiar with this in doing pelvis pelvic self exams,

311
00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:29,600
Speaker 1: please write us in and let us know. I'm genuinely

312
00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:33,800
Speaker 1: curious to know more. I've never heard about it. Yeah, um,

313
00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:36,560
Speaker 1: and I think with that, I think that's our history

314
00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:39,960
Speaker 1: of home pregnancy, just a brief history of being on

315
00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:42,440
Speaker 1: seeds and killing rabbits. But how fascinating though. We have

316
00:18:42,560 --> 00:18:45,439
Speaker 1: to learn about piss profit, I know, and about what

317
00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:47,480
Speaker 1: they looked for in urine, which grosses me out. That's

318
00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:49,480
Speaker 1: gonna be my new It's my my favorite fact of

319
00:18:49,520 --> 00:18:52,600
Speaker 1: the week, Caroline. You know, that's my new band name. Also, yes,

320
00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:56,480
Speaker 1: we should start the profits band name. And it's so Yeah.

321
00:18:56,480 --> 00:18:57,919
Speaker 1: If you'd like to join our band, send us an

322
00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:01,560
Speaker 1: email mom stuff at how so works dot com and

323
00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,359
Speaker 1: I have an email here from Daniel. I just have

324
00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:08,480
Speaker 1: one to to read today because it's just so great.

325
00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:11,119
Speaker 1: This is my It's actually my favorite, one of my

326
00:19:11,119 --> 00:19:14,680
Speaker 1: favorite emails we've ever gotten. Um. This is in response

327
00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:18,520
Speaker 1: to our episode on douching entitled Bagga douche and it

328
00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:21,679
Speaker 1: goes like this. Your Douche podcast reminded me of a

329
00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:25,680
Speaker 1: traumatic episode of my childhood during the time period when

330
00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:29,200
Speaker 1: Mass and Gil was airing your favorite commercial so eloquently

331
00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:32,359
Speaker 1: acted out during the podcast, I thank you, and my

332
00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:34,760
Speaker 1: older brother and cousin put me up to something dastardly.

333
00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:37,399
Speaker 1: I was perhaps seven or eight, and the older children

334
00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:39,480
Speaker 1: convinced me that I should go up to my grandmother

335
00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:43,040
Speaker 1: and re enact said commercial while they hid outside her

336
00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:49,320
Speaker 1: bedroom door. I slowly stepped into the room and asked, No, Grandma,

337
00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:53,560
Speaker 1: can I ask you a personal question? Yes, Daniel, Grandma,

338
00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:58,280
Speaker 1: do you douche? No? But I used to we don't

339
00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:02,160
Speaker 1: have sex anymore. No. I ran from the room screaming,

340
00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:04,680
Speaker 1: while my brother and cousin died laughing in the hallway.

341
00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:07,960
Speaker 1: Your podcast, while also informative, brought me back to this

342
00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:11,120
Speaker 1: humorous memory of my childhood. I now need to devise

343
00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:14,920
Speaker 1: an appropriate revenge for my brother's great grandmom. Do you

344
00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:19,200
Speaker 1: do you got a little more information than he requested?

345
00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:23,280
Speaker 1: So thank you to everyone who has written in mom

346
00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:27,639
Speaker 1: stuff at how stuff works dot com is the email address,

347
00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:29,640
Speaker 1: and if there's anything about the history of home pregnancy

348
00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:32,160
Speaker 1: tests we fail to leave out, send it our way please,

349
00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:35,040
Speaker 1: or you can post it over on our Facebook page,

350
00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:38,440
Speaker 1: or you can alert us on Twitter. Our tag is

351
00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:41,720
Speaker 1: at mom Stuff podcast, or you can find us on

352
00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:44,520
Speaker 1: our blog It's stuff Mom Never told You from how

353
00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:50,199
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Be sure to check out our

354
00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:53,600
Speaker 1: new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff

355
00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:56,480
Speaker 1: Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing

356
00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:59,959
Speaker 1: possibilities of tomorrow. The house stuff works I find out

357
00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:07,879
Speaker 1: has arrived. Down with it today on iTunes, brought to

358
00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:11,000
Speaker 1: you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready,

359
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:11,520
Speaker 1: are you