A Woman's Right to Know

Pregnancy Testing in Twentieth-Century Britain

Jesse Olszynko-Gryn

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English

MIT Press
09 January 2024

History; Central government policies; History of engineering & technology

"The history of pregnancy testing, and how it transformed from an esoteric laboratory tool to a commonplace of everyday life.

The history of pregnancy testing, and how it transformed from an esoteric laboratory tool to a commonplace of everyday life.

Pregnancy testing has never been easier. Waiting on one side or the other of the bathroom door for a ""positive"" or ""negative"" result has become a modern ritual and rite of passage. Today, the ubiquitous home pregnancy test is implicated in personal decisions and public debates about all aspects of reproduction, from miscarriage and abortion to the ""biological clock"" and IVF. Yet, only three generations ago, women typically waited not minutes but months to find out whether they were pregnant. A Woman's Right to Know tells, for the first time, the story of pregnancy testing-one of the most significant and least studied technologies of reproduction.

Focusing on Britain from around 1900 to the present day, Jesse Olszynko-Gryn shows how demand shifted from doctors to women, and then goes further to explain the remarkable transformation of pregnancy testing from an obscure laboratory service to an easily accessible (though fraught) tool for every woman. Lastly, the book reflects on resources the past might contain for the present and future of sexual and reproductive health.

Solidly researched and compellingly argued, Olszynko-Gryn demonstrates that the rise of pregnancy testing has had significant-and not always expected-impact and has led to changes in the ways in which we conceive of pregnancy itself."

By: Jesse Olszynko-Gryn
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 680g
ISBN: 9780262544399
ISBN 10: 0262544393
Pages: 424
Publication Date: 09 January 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jesse Olszynko-Gryn is head of the Oral History and Experimental Media Lab at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.