Description
The history of pregnancy testing, and how it transformed from an esoteric laboratory tool to a commonplace of everyday life.
Pregnancy testing has never been easier. Waiting on one side or the other of the bathroom door for a “positive” or “negative” result has become a modern ritual and rite of passage. Today, the ubiquitous home pregnancy test is implicated in personal decisions and public debates about all aspects of reproduction, from miscarriage and abortion to the “biological clock” and IVF. Yet, only three generations ago, women typically waited not minutes but months to find out whether they were pregnant. A Woman’s Right to Know tells, for the first time, the story of pregnancy testing—one of the most significant and least studied technologies of reproduction.
Focusing on Britain from around 1900 to the present day, Jesse Olszynko-Gryn shows how demand shifted from doctors to women, and then goes further to explain the remarkable transformation of pregnancy testing from an obscure laboratory service to an easily accessible (though fraught) tool for every woman. Lastly, the book reflects on resources the past might contain for the present and future of sexual and reproductive health.
Solidly researched and compellingly argued, Olszynko-Gryn demonstrates that the rise of pregnancy testing has had significant—and not always expected—impact and has led to changes in the ways in which we conceive of pregnancy itself.
Table of Contents
1 Feeling Pregnant 1
2 Bedside and Bench 11
3 The Business of Diagnosis 35
4 Knowledge and Ignorance 63
5 Imported Toads 91
6 Family Planning 115
7 Risky Hormones 145
8 Direct to Consumer 169
9 Over the Counter 201
10 Do It Yourself 227
11 Blue Lines 259
12 Futures and Afterlives 281
Acknowledgments 291
Abbreviations 297
Notes 299
References 341
Index 401
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