Audioguide: Am I pregnant? Frog test.

The question „Am I pregnant?“ is nothing new. As soon as hormones were discovered in the 20th century, animal tests were used for diagnosing pregnancy. A potentially pregnant woman’s urine was injected into the animal. If the urine contained a pregnancy hormone, the animal would produce eggs. At first, rabbits, rats and mice were used. But these animals were not optimal, since you had to kill the animal to inspect its inner organs. One also had to wait a few days to see the result. But in the 1940s Dr. Carlos Galli-Mainini from Argentina found an animal that was much more suitable for this purpose – frogs. Frogs start to produce eggs very quickly, no more than three hours after having received a pregnant woman’s urine.

Beginning in the 1940s the frog pregnancy test was offered all over the world. The most frequently used species was the claw-footed frog from South Africa. Due to the demand, these frogs were caught and sold in very high numbers. This trade even financed entire family planning associations, such as the British Family Planning Society, which bought 500 to 600 frogs and offered pregnancy tests countrywide. For a long while the procedure was very successful, but then a cold weather period killed more than half of the British frogs. They could no longer satisfy the demand for pregnancy tests, which themselves did not decline during cold periods– maybe even the contrary!

Problems arose in South Africa too, for example, during floods no frogs could be delivered. Alternatives needed to be found. In the 1960’s chemical tests were developed and introduced. To demonstrate their accuracy and reliablility, they referred to the frog test. When the Schering company marketed its first chemical test, its advertisements said: „Simpler than the frog test but just as reliable“.

Vienna also had many diagnostic labs where frog pregnancy tests were conducted frequently. Additionally, the gynaecological department of every hospital had a frog husbandry section, which was the junior doctors’ responsibility while the senior doctors tended the pregnant women. We were able to find a retired doctor and a former technical assistant who had personal experience with the frog test. You can listen to their stories on a video in the museum.