The Ancient Egyptians Had Pregnancy Tests

Long before the advent of modern medicine, ancient Egyptians developed a surprisingly effective method for determining pregnancy. This early form of a home pregnancy test, detailed in papyri from around 1350 BCE, involved a woman urinating on wheat and barley seeds. If the seeds sprouted, it was taken as a positive sign of pregnancy. This wasn't just a matter of guesswork; modern science has revealed the likely reason for this test's success. The urine of pregnant women contains elevated levels of estrogen, a hormone that can stimulate seed growth, lending a scientific basis to this ancient practice.

The ingenuity of this early diagnostic tool was not lost to history. Variations of the Egyptian seed method appeared in later Greek and Roman medical texts and even persisted in European folklore as late as 1699. The ancient Egyptians also believed this test could predict the sex of the baby, suggesting that if the barley sprouted it would be a boy, and if the wheat grew it would be a girl. However, while the pregnancy detection aspect had some merit, this gender prediction has not been substantiated by modern testing.

To validate the effectiveness of this ancient practice, a study was conducted in 1963 which found the method to be correct in determining pregnancy approximately 70 percent of the time. While not as accurate as today's standards, this level of success is remarkable for a test developed over three millennia ago. The urine from non-pregnant women and men did not cause the seeds to sprout, further supporting the scientific underpinnings of this early medical innovation.