Prior to 1978, before the first home pregnancy test kit, the EPT pregnancy test made its debut on the American market, a woman had to wait on pins and needles, sometimes as long as two weeks to find out if she was pregnant. You had to make a trip to the doctor and they wouldn’t even test you unless you were at least a week late and then once you provided a urine sample you had to wait 10-14 days to find out the results.

An Easier Way at Last - The First EPT Pregnancy Test

Imagine the convience that the first EPT pregnancy test brought when it hit local drug stores. It sounded wonderful of course, to be able to know the truth in only 2 hours instead of 2 weeks yet it was scary assembling the little kit, wondering if you were doing it right. First, you had to collect your urine in a little cup and then use a medicine dropper to put it into the test tube along with the water. Then you put the test tube in the plastic holder and attach the mirror so you could see the dark brown circle at the bottom of the test tube if the test was positive

The Change of a Name

When it first debuted on the market the EPT pregnancy test was called the Early Pregnancy Test but has since changed its name to the Error Proof Pregnancy Test. Although many more of the home pregnancy test kits have followed the EPT pregnancy test, the pioneer is still one of the most popular and reliable home pregnancy tests on the market today.

Evolution of Technology

From its humble beginnings of a dark brown circle the EPT pregnancy test has changed with the technology over the years. Today, there are 2 different kinds of the EPT pregnancy test, both of which use a midstream test strip but the difference is one of those is digital and the other isn’t.

Instructions on How to Use

With the regular one, you just hold the pregnancy test strip in your urine stream for about 5 seconds and then place it on a flat surface. After 2 or 3 minutes you will see a plus or minus sign in the display window which indicates the result of positive or negative.

With the digital EPT pregnancy test you still use the midstream test strip but you put in inside a plastic holder and wait about 3 minutes. You will then see the words “pregnant” or “not pregnant” in the display window.

We’ve come a long way since the two week wait time at the doctor’s office and are now used to getting our results in 2-5 minutes.