The world’s first saliva-based pregnancy test set to hit the shops and it boasts it’s 95% accurate 

For decades, women have discreetly visited the bathroom to take a ‘pee on a stick’ pregnancy test.

In fact, urine has been used to determine if a woman is pregnant for over 3,000 years.

But the method could become outdated soon, thanks to scientists who have finally cracked the secret of how to test for pregnancy using only saliva.

The ‘SaliStick’, the world’s first saliva-based pregnancy test, will go on sale in High Street shops next year, costing around £8.

Last night Guy Krief, co-founder of Israel-based manufacturer Salignostics, said he would allow couples to go through the experience of taking a pregnancy test together for the first time.

The ‘SaliStick’, the world’s first saliva-based pregnancy test, will go on sale in High Street shops next year, costing around £8

He added: ‘The concept is so modern and so different to the current way of doing things.’

First, the woman places the foam-tipped stick in her mouth for a few moments, as she would a thermometer.

Then it is transferred to a plastic tube, where a biochemical reaction takes place, the result of which is obtained in less than ten minutes.

Krief said surveys indicated the method would be popular, with 70 percent of women saying they would opt for a saliva-based pregnancy test compared with 16 percent preferring to stick with the urine-based method. .

One woman who used the SaliStick in testing said it was a “pleasure” to be able to test with her partner present, adding: “I didn’t like the idea of ​​having to go to the toilet or bathroom.” Urine pregnancy tests can be tricky and complicated.’

Mr Krief said: “It’s a lovely idea if you’re trying to get a baby to be able to test in front of their partner and hopefully celebrate the good news together right away.”

SaliStick can be used to test for pregnancy from the first day of a missed period.

One trial showed that it identified pregnancies 95 percent of the time, while giving a false-positive reading on fewer than three out of 100 occasions. This makes it slightly less accurate than urine-based tests – the popular brand Clearblue claims to be over 99 percent accurate.

However, Krief said they hoped to further refine the accuracy of their product.

Both urine and saliva tests work by identifying the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, a pregnancy-specific hormone that helps prepare the uterus for the developing embryo.

Both urine and saliva tests work by identifying the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, a pregnancy-specific hormone that helps prepare the uterus for the developing embryo.

The saliva test is the latest method in the long and strange history of guessing the pregnancy. The ancient Egyptians recommended urinating on barley and wheat seeds, according to a papyrus text dating to 1350 BC.

If the barley seeds germinated, it was destined to herald a child; wheat a girl If neither sprouted, the woman was not pregnant.

Scientists believe there might be a grain of truth to what could be dismissed as an old wives’ tale: A pregnant woman’s urine contains high levels of several hormones that could help trigger germination.

In the 1920s, reliable tests were devised, although these consisted of injecting the woman’s urine into a variety of small animals: mice, rabbits, and frogs.

If hCG were present, it would cause them to ovulate.

Off-the-shelf tests appeared in the 1970s, but they were complicated, as women had to combine their urine with dried sheep’s blood.