pregnancy-test-kit

Most of us have witnessed a family that always seemed intent on somehow getting ahead ueof everyone else.  Some neighbors might have said that they were always trying to “keep up with the Jones’.” Few of us, however, would expect such a family to become conscious of its decisions in regard to use of a pregnancy test kit. Suppose, however, that the same family heard about a pregnancy test kit that had been developed from facts provided by someone with the last name of Jones. Then that family might show a decided preference for that particular home-based pregnancy test.

The developers of the pregnancy test kit made use of information that had first been reported medical journals that were published in the 1940’s. During that decade, Georgeanna Jones, a researcher at Johns Hopkins, discovered that Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG), the hormone associated with pregnancy, is not a product of the pituitary gland. Contrary to the prevailing doctrine, her research proved that HCG enters the woman’s reproductive system from the placenta. That fact pointed to HCG as a chemical that could serve as an indication that conception had occurred. In other words, a test for HCG could work as a test for pregnancy.

Georgeanna had not pursued her research with an eye to developing a pregnancy test kit. She had been intent on finding a way to help women to avoid the pain of a miscarriage. After her finding on HCG, Dr. Jones discovered the degree to which a luteal phase defect can contribute to the changes that presage a miscarriage. Her research allowed more women to carry their pregnancy to completion. That insured a longer happiness for those women who used the pregnancy test kit.

Dr. Jones pioneered the use of biomedical research to meet important social needs. She had been the first female president of the American Fertility Society.  An administrator at the Eastern Virginia Medical School has said this about Dr. Jones: “She opened up new ways to do research in reproductive medicine.” Her research did more than lay down the groundwork for the development of a pregnancy test kit. It also allowed more women to get a positive result when they decided to use the pregnancy test kit.

Dr. Jones and her husband together showed obstetricians in the U.S. how to encourage conception outside of a mother’s body. Their efforts gave the Carr family the privilege of holding and loving America’s first “test tube baby.” While that feat brought fame to the name “Jones,” it did not stop the on-going research of Georgeanna.

Forty years after Dr. Jones had first reported her findings on the source of HCG, obstetricians could ask their patients if they had tried doing a test for pregnancy at home. By the late 1990’s the pregnancy test kit for home use had been included in at least one Hollywood movie and at least one TV episode. The public’s quick acceptance of the kit demonstrated its ability to meet an important need.

Dr. Jones’ interest in reproductive medicine had developed from her interest in endocrinology. The seed for that interest had come from a lecture given by Dr. Harvey Cushing, a neurosurgeon. Dr. Cushing and Dr. Jones appreciated the link between the brain and the endocrine system, a link that would later help to explain certain deviations from normal female development.