The Weirdest Pregnancy Test in History

One of the weirdest historical methods for pregnancy testing dates back to ancient Egypt, where women would urinate on wheat and barley seeds. If the barley grew, it was believed to indicate that the woman was pregnant with a male child, while if the wheat grew, it meant she was carrying a female child. If neither grew, it was believed the woman wasn't pregnant.

This method is documented in the Kahun Papyrus, an ancient Egyptian medical text dating back to around 1800 BCE. While it may seem bizarre by modern standards, it reflects the early attempts of ancient civilizations to understand and diagnose pregnancy using available resources and observations of nature.