How to determine pregnancy with iodine?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

At a time when laboratory tests were not so diverse, folk remedies for determining pregnancy were used. Moreover, they are still used today, because, according to the older generation, their reliability has never failed. One such remedy is iodine.

First signs of pregnancy

The first signs of pregnancy appear long before laboratory tests or tests can confirm it. Particularly sensitive women notice changes in their body already at the 2nd week, while the test will give a positive result only at the 6-8th week. However, this sensitivity is not common to everyone. Some may not notice their position until the second trimester, although a number of signs indicate it, such as:

• No period.
• Pain, heaviness of the mammary glands.
• Drowsiness, fatigue.
• Nausea as a reaction to certain smells, tastes.
• Frequent urge to urinate.
• Exacerbation or, conversely, in case of toxicosislack of appetite.
• Appearance of brown spotting.
• Heaviness in the lower abdomen.
• Darkening of the areolas, breast tenderness.

Not all signs may be present during pregnancy. In special cases, a woman may even continue to menstruate. Therefore, having noticed at least three symptoms, one can assume that the egg has been fertilized and conduct an iodine pregnancy test.

Chemical properties of iodine

The bottles that everyone is used to seeing on pharmacy shelves are iodine solution. In its pure form, it has a crystalline form. The crystals of this substance have a purple hue, and when heated, they turn into a purple vapor.

It’s worth saying right away that to determine pregnancy with iodine, you don’t have to look for it in its pure form. An alcohol solution is perfect for these purposes, since it also has its own special chemical properties. These include:

• Change in shade on contact with oxygen to darker.
• Adding starch will turn the solution blue.
• When in contact with gasoline, the iodine solution will acquire its natural color - purple.

The chemical properties of the solution helped find the use of iodine during pregnancy. Moreover, in comparison with other folk remedies, it has a lot of advantages.

Advantages of the method

Iodine during pregnancy as its identifier is a very interesting element. Even skeptics who doubt the effectiveness of folk methodsdiagnostics, try to use it for the sake of the experiment. But besides originality, it has other advantages:

• Availability.
• High speed of getting results.
• Safety.
• Effective even early on.
• Ease of procedure.
• Low cost.

Determining pregnancy with iodine can be done simply out of idle curiosity. It's easy, because iodine is an essential part of any home first aid kit.

Flaws

Despite all the charms of iodine testing, you should not take its results as the only true ones. And there is a reason for this - checking pregnancy with iodine has its drawbacks, which can affect its reliability. These include:

• No guarantee 100% correct result.
• Need to follow instructions exactly.
• Time limit - the duration of the test cannot exceed 25 minutes.

Before moving on to how to determine pregnancy with iodine, a woman must clearly understand that this method will fit as an initial check, after which it is necessary to consult a specialist. After all, even pharmacy tests can give a false result.

What do you need for the test?

To try out how to test pregnancy with iodine, you need to prepare everything you need for this. The list of materials is so modest and simple that everything you need can be found at home. So, for the test you will need:

• iodine solution;
• container for collecting urine;
• dropper;
• paper napkin.

This list can be shortened by removing the paper tissue from it, since there are two ways to determine pregnancy with iodine. Photos will not be able to fully describe the essence of the procedure, so detailed instructions will be given for each of them.

Test Rules

Strict adherence to the instructions is the main condition for conducting an iodine test. Therefore, it is very important to follow all the rules and sequence of actions. First you need to read the rules:

1. Due to the high content of hormones in morning urine, the test should be carried out in the morning.
2. Before collecting urine, you can not use cosmetic and hygiene products with a high content of flavors, dyes. Because when chemically interacting with iodine, they can distort the result.
3. After collecting urine, it should not be stored for more than 25 minutes.
4. The paper and napkins you will need for the test must be clean.
5. The container, as well as the pipette, must first be sterilized.
6. Iodine during pregnancy will show the most reliable result only up to the 10th week.

The rules are quite simple, but some may have problems sterilizing the instrument. There is nothing complicated here. Just put a pipette and a small glass container in a saucepan and boil a little, after which they are ready to use.

Determining pregnancy with iodine: method 1

Having prepared everything you need, you canproceed directly to testing. To do this, you need to clearly follow all the steps indicated in the step-by-step instructions.

Instruction:

1. Collect morning urine in a sterile container.
2. Place paper napkin on a clean plate.
3. Use a pipette to collect a few drops of urea.
4. Put a few drops on a tissue so that it is soaked.
5. Drip a few drops of iodine solution from above.
6. Evaluate the result.

When performing these steps, you need to remember that iodine reacts even with oxygen. Therefore, the pipette should be brought as close as possible to the napkin, and not drip from a height. Thus, the possibility of a possible error is reduced.

How to determine the result?

The most quivering and exciting moment is checking the result. Unlike pharmacy tests, you don’t have to wait, the result can be assessed instantly. The decryption is as follows:

• The spot turned purple or lilac - pregnancy has come.
• The spot has turned brown or bluish - no pregnancy.

It is recommended to check the result obtained with a pharmacy test. Today, there are especially sensitive tests for the hCG hormone on sale, which can determine pregnancy as early as the second week after conception.

Since there are no studies yet on why iodine turns purple, for the sake of experiment, it is possible to test the effectiveness of the method during a period when there is definitely no pregnancy. If it gives the correct result, it makes sense to tryhim after conception.

Method 2

For the second method, a paper napkin is not needed. It is enough to have a clean container and a pipette. Next, you need to do the following:

1. Collect urine in a clean, sterilized container.
2. Use a pipette to drop a few drops of iodine solution into a container.
3. Evaluate the result.

If a spot with clear edges forms on the surface, the test result is positive. It should be noted that the resulting stain should hold out on the surface for at least 2-5 seconds. Otherwise, the test result should be considered negative.

This method of verification should be carried out more carefully. The pipette should be used in close proximity to the contents of the container. Since, if you drip the solution from a height, the probability of obtaining the reliability of the result is significantly reduced. A drop, regardless of the presence of hormones in the urine, will simply flatten on the surface, which will give the woman a false indicator of the absence of pregnancy.

Reliability

There are a lot of myths about iodine. On the Web, you can even find an opinion about the termination of pregnancy with iodine, while this substance is one of the most harmless. The same goes for tests done with iodine solution.

Some users note that after verification, the result was successfully refuted with the help of pharmacy tests and laboratory blood tests for the content of hCG. The credibility of iodine is also undermined by positive results afterchecking children and men.

If we consider the effectiveness of the method from a scientific point of view, then iodine is also in a losing position. The change in the color of the iodine solution in the first method is explained by doctors by the fact that the paper taken for the test may contain a large amount of starch, which, as mentioned above, stains iodine purple. Also, the content of amyloids in urine can affect a positive reaction. Amyloids are protein compounds that can be found in the urine in pathologies and diseases of the kidneys. Therefore, a suspected pregnancy that was detected by an iodine test may be a reason to see a doctor.

As for the second method, it also has no scientific validity. Some consider it effective, since supposedly the density of the urine of a pregnant woman and a non-pregnant woman is different. However, no laboratory studies have been conducted in this regard, so the effectiveness of the iodine test remains in doubt.

Expert Opinion

Of course, obstetricians and gynecologists oppose traditional methods for determining pregnancy. Indeed, in the twenty-first century there is simply no such need. Today, tests and laboratory tests are available to absolutely all women. But why "grandmother's" methods do not lose their relevance?

The fact is that folk methods, in particular the iodine test, are used by women who have been trying to get pregnant for a long time. They simply do not have the patience to wait for a missed period to find out the status of their situation. Whiletraditional medicine promises to determine pregnancy almost immediately after conception.

If the iodine test showed a positive result and thus improved the woman's mood, then some experts are absolutely not against it. Moreover, such experiments are completely safe. But at the same time, a woman must be aware that the result obtained may turn out to be false. Otherwise, another moral shock could be devastating for her condition.

Summing up, it should be said that today checking pregnancy with iodine is a fun that should not be taken seriously. When planning a pregnancy, it is better to focus on other indicators: basal body temperature, hCG levels and the results of modern pregnancy tests.