Women are now using toothpaste to test if they’re pregnant

Publish Date
Tuesday, 18 July 2017, 3:28PM

Recently there has been a rise in Google searches for ‘toothpaste pregnancy tests’.

Yep, as strange as it sounds, women are using toothpaste to test if they've got a bun in the oven.

According to YouTube tutorials, all you have to do is mix a small amount of urine with some toothpaste in a dish. Stir and voila! If the toothpaste changes colour and/or froths you're pregnant.

If you're not pregnant, the toothpaste will remain unchanged.

Sounding a bit far-fetched?

Let's hear what the experts have to say...

Stuart Gale, owner and chief pharmacist at Oxford Online Pharmacy, said the test shouldn’t be taken too seriously and is not an accurate way to detect pregnancy.

“This is a bit of fun for anyone who thinks they might be pregnant,” he told HuffPost UK.

“The fizz in the toothpaste is caused by the acid in the urine reacting with the calcium carbonate in the toothpaste to give off carbon dioxide.

“The more acidic the urine is, the greater the fizz. Whether or not a person is or isn’t pregnant wouldn’t make any difference.”

“Even if the ‘toothpaste test’ does appear to be ‘positive’ I would strongly recommend that any possible mum-to-be gets official confirmation of the fact that they are indeed pregnant with a proper pregnancy test,” he said.

Furthermore, Elisabeth Ratcliffe of the US Royal Society of Chemistry conceded that the amino acids that make up the pregnancy hormone HCg could plausibly create foam when in contact with the calcium carbonate in toothpaste.

However, she also pointed out that all urine contains acid that would create this effect.

“I still think you would get fizzing even in a non-pregnant person, because of the uric acid,” Ratcliffe said.

The bottom line is, while it might be a fun chemistry experiment, using toothpaste isn’t really an accurate or trusted way to tell whether or not you’re pregnant.

Leave the toothpaste for your teeth, and stick with the stick for your testing.

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