The “rabbit test” was a method of testing for pregnancy in the 1920s by injecting a woman’s urine into a female rabbit. The rabbit’s ovaries would show changes if the woman was pregnant, but the rabbit would have to be killed to examine the ovaries. The test was later revised to check ovarian changes on live rabbits. At-home pregnancy tests have replaced the rabbit test. The test is also known as the Friedman test after Maurice H. Friedman, who developed the test from the Aschhiem-Zondek pregnancy test used on mice.
The “rabbit test” refers to the late 1920s method of injecting a woman’s urine into a female rabbit to test for pregnancy. Within several days of performing the test, the rabbit’s ovaries will show changes if the woman is pregnant. The changes occur due to the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is a hormone that occurs in the uterus when a woman’s egg is fertilized.
The expression “the rabbit died” was commonly used to mean that a woman had been tested on a rabbit and found to be pregnant. However, while popular, the term is incorrect as the rabbit died whether or not the female was pregnant. The animals had to be killed to examine the ovaries. This test was later revised so that ovarian changes could be checked on live, rather than dead, rabbits.
At-home pregnancy blood tests and urinalysis have replaced the rabbit test. Both of these methods also test for hCG in the body, but they don’t use rabbits at all. Unlike the other methods, rabbit testing is a biological or animal-type test.
Dr. Maxwell E. Lapham was one of the medical researchers who worked on developing the rabbit test. He was director of the Division of Medical Extension and then dean emeritus at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Dr Lapham died in 1983 at the age of 83.
The rabbit test is also known as the Friedman test after Maurice H. Friedman. Friedman, a German, was the first to use rabbits for pregnancy tests. Friedman developed the lui test from the first pregnancy test, the Aschhiem-Zondek, used on mice.
The Aschhiem-Zondek pregnancy test was invented by the Germans Selmar Aschheim and Bernhard Zondek. It was Zondek who first discovered the hCG hormone in pregnant women. Friedman’s rabbit test was found to be more accurate than Aschheim-Zondek pregnancy tests performed on mice.
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