Despite the fact that pharmacies can freely purchase any of almost two dozen brands of testing systems for determining pregnancy, some are wondering whether it is possible to make a pregnancy test in the early stages without the help of a ready-made rapid test kit.
How to make a pregnancy test at home?
As you know, pregnancy testing is based on the fact that a few days after the conception (fertilization of the egg) in the cells of the chorion (embryonic part of the placenta), the synthesis of a special hormone - human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) begins. It enters the urine of a woman, and there its free particles (beta subunits) can be detected using monoclonal antibodies to the chorionic gonadotropin - proteins produced by B-lymphocytes of the immune system and having a high sensitivity to hCG.
That is, pregnancy by staining the dough strips is determined as a result of a special immunochemical reaction - immunochromatography. A strip of dough, more precisely, their membranes, processed by appropriate chemical composition. This composition, in addition to the dye (colored latex particles, nano-particles of colloidal gold or carbon) includes the combination of labeled specific monoclonal antibodies to the chorionic gonadotropin.
What can counter the immunochromatography of a popular pregnancy test with iodine? It is said that everything is very simple: when pregnancy comes, iodine becomes purple - if it is dripped onto urine-wetted paper. And if a woman is not pregnant, then iodine will not change at all, or become blue.
Another suggestion is to follow the behavior of a drop of iodine, which should be dropped from the pipette into a bowl with urine: when this drop immediately blurs, this should mean that the woman has not become pregnant. But if a drop of alcohol solution of iodine lingered on the surface - then the pregnancy came.
Neither the chemical mechanism nor the experimentally verified data on the reliability of this method could not be found.
Pregnancy test with soda
Bicarbonate sodium (baking soda) refers to alkaline salts, and the pregnancy test with soda - apparently - uses this particular quality.
To carry out the soda test for pregnancy, you need half a glass of the first morning urine and a teaspoon of soda, and then you just throw the soda into the urine. The formation of sizzling foam and bubbles will mean a negative result, and the precipitation without bubbles is positive.
The whole secret of this "focus" is that soda has alkaline properties, and urine is acidic. So the negative result of this "testing", given the specific pH of urine, is guaranteed. The carbon dioxide and water on which the intermediate product of the usual reaction of soda - carbonic acid dissolves and bubbles when exposed to urine acids.
Pregnancy Test with Manganese
The suggested pregnancy test with potassium permanganate is based on the belief that when pregnancy occurs, urine does not change the faint pink color of potassium permanganate solution, but it should appear suspended particles. And if a woman is not pregnant, then by adding her urine to the solution of potassium permanganate, the mixture will turn yellowish.
Potassium salt of manganic acid is the strongest oxidant and enters into redox reactions with salts that contain urine. Upon decomposition, the anions are converted to cations and molecular oxygen is liberated, which also decolorizes the solution of manganese. And at what here pregnancy?
It's about the same absurdity that comes from trying to conduct a pregnancy test in the early stages of using ... Toothpaste. In a container with urine, it is advised to put a sufficient amount of white toothpaste and wait 10 minutes. Upon the appearance of foam in the container, the pregnancy is judged, everything else is considered a negative indicator.
We want to remind you that in the courtyard of the 21st century, and trying to do a test for pregnancy at home by all the above methods is simply not practical.