Written by Gayathri Lakshminarayanan
Every woman has an intuition before confirming the pregnancy with the doctor. Certain symptoms, including missed periods, sore breasts, and tiredness, hint at the possibility of pregnancy.
The most common method to confirm pregnancy at home is the pregnancy kit available at the stores. But, do you know you can also confirm the pregnancy using other methods and procedures? Yes. The bleach pregnancy test is one such method where you can check for pregnancy at home. Let’s look more into the process and how does it work.
In This Article
As the same suggests, we use bleaching powder to determine if you are pregnant or not. During pregnancy, the body produces a pregnancy hormone called Human Chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). In the bleaching powder pregnancy test, one needs to mix the bleach and urine. The bleach will react to the HCG to determine if you are pregnant or not.
In this bleach pregnancy test, the bleach reacts with the HCG hormone in the urine. The results are assumed to be positive if the reaction makes the mixture foam up. If there is no foam formation but just bubbles in the urine, the pregnancy result is negative.
It is always recommended to use regular bleach without ammonia or coloring agents. This is because the inclusion of ammonia and coloring agents might affect the reaction of the bleach with the urine.
As said earlier, you need to mix the urine and bleach and allow it to react. So the step by step procedure would be as follows:
Generally, if there is no reaction, it means you are not pregnant. However, there might be other circumstances as well where there might be no reaction:
As discussed, the bleach pregnancy test results could be either positive or negative. But how accurate is this test depends on several factors, including the quality of the bleach, fresh sample of urine, gradual mixing of the bleach, and clean container. Therefore, there are high chances that you might get a false positive on a bleach pregnancy test and vice-versa.
[Read : Everything About Pregnancy Tests]
The answer would be straightforward – not accurate. No studies or evidence are proving it to be accurate. Further, no medical organizations recommend the bleach pregnancy test.
Firstly, bleach is a chemical and is not produced for determining pregnancy hormones. Secondly, no chemical research proves that when urine is mixed with bleach, it won’t result in a foamy reaction. What if it is just a natural reaction and has nothing to do with the pregnancy hormones?
To be more precise, there are more chances of getting a false result. So, there is no reliability on the final result, either positive or negative.
The most important fact to keep in mind is, bleach is a chemical. Imagine what happens when you pee in bleach. When it reacts with urine, which contains ammonia, it might result in chlorine gas. Chlorine gas is hazardous, especially for pregnant women. Further, the use of bleach for pregnancy and the pregnant woman has not yet been tested. So, if you feel any of the following symptoms while taking up the bleach pregnancy test at home, please get away from the place:
Above all, the most significant risk in a bleach pregnancy test is the risk of a false result. There are chances of getting both false-negative and false positive.
The false-negative could delay the prenatal care to be taken. A false positive can actually take a toll on your emotional stability and can cause distress.
The health supplements that contain HCG are banned in the market. So, taking health supplements cannot result in a false result. However, if you are under fertility medications and treatments, there might be a false result because fertility treatments and medicines increase the HCG levels.
The bleaching powder test is just another easy homemade pregnancy test with bleach, which helps you find out if you are pregnant. It is highly preferred by many because of its cost-effectiveness and easy procedure. But, this method is not proved to be accurate. It is also a risky job to deal with chemicals, especially when expecting a positive pregnancy. Therefore, if you think you might be pregnant, you can look out for more accurate alternatives or head to the doctor right away and start your prenatal care. There is no need to risk your health when you are pregnant.
Read Also: Baking Soda Pregnancy Test And DIY Tests
Gayathri’s passion for writing had its foundation at the very early stages of her life when she was on her college editorial board and also won several awards for writing events and book review competitions. She combines her corporate experience with her writing skills and her experience as a homemaker makes her an empathetic contributor in the parenting domain . Her shift from full-time accounting professional to a homemaker gave her career a new direction.Read more.
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