A
pregnancy test attempts to determine whether a woman is
pregnant. Markers that indicate pregnancy are found in
urine and
blood, and pregnancy tests require sampling one of these substances. The first of these markers to be discovered,
human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), was discovered in 1930 to be produced by the
syncytiotrophoblast cells of the
fertilised ova (eggs). While hCG is a reliable marker of pregnancy, it cannot be detected until after
implantation: this results in
false negatives if the test is performed during the very early stages of pregnancy.
Obstetric ultrasonography may also be used to detect pregnancy. Obstetric ultrasonography was first practiced in the 1960s; the first home test kit for hCG was invented in 1968 by
Margaret Crane in New York. She was granted two
U.S. patents. The kits went on the market in the United States and Europe in the mid-1970s.