Pregnancy Test at Home With Toothpaste – Method & Effectiveness

Finding out that you are pregnant can be a wonderful moment for the couples who are looking forward to being parents. While getting a pregnancy test from the pharmacy is the easiest way to go about it, there are a few other options you can choose from to check if you’re really pregnant. And, these options are homemade pregnancy tests. One such alternative is the toothpaste pregnancy test, which, although scientifically not proven, could come handy if you cannot get a store-bought pregnancy test. In this article, we will discuss most key things you need to know about the toothpaste pregnancy test, and whether or not it is effective. Be sure you read the article till the end to know the pros, cons and the accuracy of the test.

What Is a Toothpaste Pregnancy Test?

In the toothpaste pregnancy test, the woman uses her urine and some toothpaste to check for the presence of pregnancy hormone in the urine. Using this test, you could find out if you are pregnant or whether it was a false alarm. In other words, the test may give you an idea of the symptoms you have been experiencing lately.

When urine is mixed with some toothpaste, the colour of the toothpaste changes if the urine has the pregnancy hormone, human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). If you’ve observed some pregnancy symptoms lately and also notice a change in the colour of the toothpaste after carrying out the test, you are most probably pregnant and must visit a gynaecologist to confirm your pregnancy.

How to Carry Out the Toothpaste Pregnancy Test

Carrying out the homemade pregnancy test using toothpaste is an easy task, as it requires very few items. It was the pregnancy test used by women in rural areas for decades, as getting a pregnancy kit was not an option back then owing to a lack of large medical stores.

What You Will Need

• White, plain toothpaste
• Two clean and sterilised cups
• A sample of morning urine

What to Do

1. The first step is to gather everything you need and place them at an accessible distance.
2. Squirt a teaspoon of toothpaste into the cup.
3. Take the sample of your morning urine, and pour a few droplets of it onto the toothpaste. You can either pour it directly or use a medicine dropper for this.
4. Use a clean stick to mix the toothpaste and the urine, and leave it alone for a few minutes.
5. After that, check the mixture for any colour changes that may have occurred. The toothpaste may turn bluish, or it may undergo other reactions such as becoming frothy or having bubbles. If any of these occur, the odds are that you are pregnant.
6. If no reaction occurs whatsoever, you are probably not pregnant.

Let’s understand how the test really works.

How Does the Test Work?

The urine of a pregnant woman contains a pregnancy hormone called human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG), which is produced in large quantities by the body during pregnancy. HCG reacts with the chemicals in the toothpaste and leads to a change in the colour of the toothpaste. The toothpaste could also froth or develop bubbles. If the hormone is not present in adequate amounts, there will be no reaction. This could mean that that you are not pregnant.

Although the steps and the key things to observe are defined precisely in this homemade pregnancy test, its result and effectiveness are still questionable. The next section will help you understand both these aspects of the toothpaste pregnancy test.

How Effective Is the Toothpaste Pregnancy Test?

The test can be considered one of the easiest ways for a woman to put her mind at rest, as it can be carried out easily in the privacy of her bathroom at her convenience. However, there are questions regarding whether it is accurate and if the results are definitive or not. The effectiveness of the test also depends upon the quality and condition of the items you use for the test, including the paste, the cups, and even the stirrer. If any of these have any contaminants or if the toothpaste is of low quality, the result of the pregnancy test may be a false one.

What Does the Result of the Test Mean?

If the result of the toothpaste pregnancy test is positive, the colour of the mixture will change, or it will become frothy, or form bubbles. This means that there is something in your urine that has reacted with the toothpaste, and it could be the HCG hormone. The odds are that you are pregnant, in this case. If there is no change in the mixture in the next 3-5 minutes, you are probably not pregnant. However, you can visit the doctor if you feel apprehensive about the result of the negative test.

As mentioned earlier, the presence of contaminants and the quality of the ingredients used can affect the results. However, you can take some precautions to get the best results from this homemade pregnancy test.

How to Get Best Results From the Toothpaste Pregnancy Test

The most important thing to remember is to ensure cleanliness and quality – both of these characteristics can have great effects on the outcome of your test. The toothpaste you use should be of plain white colour and of high quality. The colour change is better visible that way and a good quality toothpaste reacts better with the hormones in the urine. The cups and the stirrer should not be contaminated, and they should be cleaned before using them. Doing so decreases the chances of false results as a result of foreign substances present in the cups or on the stirrer. Also, the urine sample should be taken early in the morning, and it should be the first urine your body passes that day.

Several conscious would-be-mothers gauge the pros and cons of every test. If you are one of them, the next part of this article should put most of your concerns to rest.

Pros and Cons of The Toothpaste Pregnancy Test

Everything in the world has its share of pros and cons; so does this homemade pregnancy test. Here are some of them:

Pros

• The toothpaste pregnancy test is one of the cheapest methods for a woman to check whether she is pregnant. The test is virtually free, compared to the price of a standard pregnancy test which is available at a medical store.
• The test is extremely easy to perform, as women can carry it out from the privacy of their bathroom with ease.
• The test is also a quick one, as the results are obtained within a few minutes of mixing the urine with the toothpaste.

Cons

• The result of the test can be confusing, as it requires only some sort of reaction to occur. The amount of urine and toothpaste used has to be roughly the same if you want to read the results correctly.
• The timings could vary – there have been instances wherein the reaction has been visible only after ten minutes of mixing, while it should come in around 3-5 minutes.
• The result can be wrong, too. This can occur because of the quality of the items, the timing of the test or for no reason at all.
• The froth in the toothpaste could be because of the acids in the urine; which doesn’t necessarily imply that the urine has the hCG hormone.

So, how accurate is this test really? Let’s find out!

How Accurate Is the Toothpaste Pregnancy Test?

You can definitely make your own pregnancy test with toothpaste when required, but women are always doubtful regarding the credibility of the results obtained. The toothpaste pregnancy test has a success rate of around 85%, but the chances of false results are around 15%, which certainly cannot be ignored. This can be due to various controllable or even uncontrollable factors, so it is always best to visit the doctor in case of doubts.

You can check whether you are pregnant from the comfort of your home, with the toothpaste pregnancy test. The test is extremely easy to carry out, it does not require expensive items, or it does not take a lot of time as well. If you want to carry out the test, make sure you use quality items and clean them thoroughly before using them. And, no matter what the test result is, you must visit your medical practitioner and confirm your pregnancy.

Reference:

• Healthline

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