Many different methods have been devised for the early detection of pregnancy [5]. From the time of the Ancient Egyptians, inspection of the urine has been a popular place to start. However, it was not until the discovery of hormones [6] in the early twentieth century that the development of truly reliable pregnancy [5] tests occurred. Prior to 1978, when the first home pregnancy [5] tests beca...

The need for a satisfactory test for pregnancy has long been felt, and numerous tests have been evolved for this purpose. A few of these may be mentioned. The Aschheim-Zondek (1928) test or its modifications depend on the demonstration of the anterior-pituitary-like hormone in the urine of pregnant women. Though this is widely accepted as the most accurate and certain test, it has several disad...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW This review describes how the physiological demands of pregnancy act as a maternal stress test that can predict a woman's health in later life. Pregnancy transiently catapults a woman into a metabolic syndrome that predisposes to vascular endothelial dysfunction. Women who are already predisposed to this phenotype develop gestational hypertension or diabetes mellitus, which re...