Emergency contraception and home pregnancy tests are commonplace, with both being available without a prescription. Oral emergency contraception formulations available in the United States typically contain levonorgestrel or ulipristal acetate, which prevent ovulation. Over-the-counter home pregnancy tests are generally reliable and accurate in identifying pregnancy through detection of urinary human chorionic gonadotropin. Home pregnancy tests are packaged into small strips with a plastic casing containing reagents, an absorbent test pad, results display, and a desiccant to prevent product degradation in storage.
Recently, the idea that home pregnancy test kits secretly contain an emergency contraceptive pill inside their casing has been promoted on social media. Specifically, several TikTok and YouTube videos show users breaking open Clearblue home pregnancy tests (SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics, Petit-Lancy, Switzerland) to reveal a pill-shaped desiccant within. We report a case of this newly popularized urban myth.
An 18-year-old woman broke open a Clearblue home pregnancy test and ingested the pill-shaped desiccant inside. A friend had told her to take it as a “morning after pill.” This friend had reportedly ingested the same tablet on 6 prior occasions without any adverse effects. Fifteen minutes post ingestion, our patient became concerned and called poison control after reading several articles that debunked the idea and advised seeking medical attention. The patient was asymptomatic, and because desiccants are generally nontoxic and have no physiologic activity, no treatment was required.
Nearly 45% of the 6.1 million pregnancies in the United States are unintended. Patients incorrectly ingesting home pregnancy test desiccants as a pregnancy prevention method may worsen that number. Additionally, patients of lower socioeconomic status, who may already lack reliable access to good health information, may be disproportionally affected by the fact that home pregnancy tests could be a cheaper ($12) option than traditional emergency contraception pills ($50).
Unfortunately, the internet has quickly become many patients’ primary resource for medical information. Dangerous practices such as using dinitrophenol for weight loss, “vodka eyeballing,” the “cinnamon challenge,” and “planking” have all resulted in medical consequences.While several parenting websites and forums have attempted to debunk the original claims, the misuse of Clearblue home pregnancy tests continues to be perpetuated on social media. To avoid unintended pregnancies, clinicians should be familiar with this ineffective urban myth and be prepared to provide adequate postexposure counseling.
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-Sam T. Ontiveros, MD, Mariam Qozi, PharmD, F. Lee Cantrell, PharmD
This article originally appeared in the March 2020 issue of The American Journal of Medicine
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