Primodos
Primodos
Hormone-based pregnancy test
Primodos was a hormone-based pregnancy test, produced by Schering AG, and used in the 1960s and 1970s that consisted of two pills that contained norethisterone (as acetate) and ethinylestradiol.[1][2] It detected pregnancy by inducing menstruation in women who were not pregnant. The presence or absence of menstrual bleeding was then used to determine whether the user was pregnant.[1] In South Korea it was also used, "perhaps as a double dose" to induce abortions.[3]
While first made available for sale in the UK in 1959, it was withdrawn from sale in the UK in 1978.[4] Primodos was produced by Schering AG, a German company taken over by Bayer AG in 2006.
Another hormonal pregnancy test called Duogynon was in use in Germany during the same general time period.[1]