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This video tells the story of how Xenopus laevis, a frog species studied by biologists around the world, was once used as a pregnancy test.

Around 1930, scientists discovered that injecting the urine of a pregnant person under the skin of a female Xenopus frog would cause the frog to produce eggs. That discovery eventually led to the development of the pregnancy tests that are sold in pharmacies today.  

The video also goes through the science behind a modern pregnancy test, which relies on the detection of a key pregnancy hormone by the ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) technique. 

An audio descriptive version of the film is available via our media player. Select the “AD” button to enable audio description.

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