What Is the Sugar Pregnancy Test?

You can buy a pregnancy test at the drugstore for between $5 and $25. But can you tell whether you’re expecting for a lot less using a sugar pregnancy test?

Homemade pregnancy tests with sugar are popular on YouTube and blogs, so you might be tempted to give one a try. The problem? Even though this DIY option is easy on your wallet, experts agree that it isn’t reliable or based on science. Here’s a look at how the test is thought to work and whether you can ever count on the results.

What is the sugar pregnancy test?

The sugar pregnancy test is a DIY test that involves combining your urine with sugar to tell whether you’re pregnant. Advocates claim that, like drugstore home pregnancy tests, the sugar pregnancy test can detect the presence of the pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG).

How do you take the sugar pregnancy test?

It’s pretty simple. All you have to do is put a few spoonfuls of white sugar in a sterilized bowl and pour your first morning urine over the sugar. If the sugar clumps up after a few minutes, you’re pregnant, according to legend. If it readily dissolves and doesn’t clump, you’re not.

How does a homemade pregnancy test with sugar work?

There’s no scientific explanation for how — or why — sugar pregnancy tests might work. Advocates say that hCG makes it harder for sugar to dissolve in urine, causing clumps to form instead. But that’s just speculation. There’s no evidence that the sugar pregnancy test actually works.

How accurate is the sugar pregnancy test?

Sugar pregnancy tests have never been studied, and no major medical organization recommends using them. So you can’t count on them to tell you whether you’re pregnant. Basically, this test is similar to using a Chinese gender predictor or dangling a ring over your belly to tell whether you’re having a boy or a girl: It might be fun to do, but it’s just an old wives’ tale. If you opt to try it, you should follow up with a home pregnancy test to re-check your results.

So why do some women say that the test worked for them? Chalk it up to chance. After all, the test only has two possible outcomes — either you’re pregnant or you’re not!

When should you take this kind of pregnancy test?

You shouldn’t take the sugar pregnancy test, experts say. There’s no evidence that the test works, so it’s likely that you’ll end up getting an inaccurate result.

What if you want to try it anyway, just for fun? People who recommend the sugar pregnancy test say you should take it first thing in the morning. The thinking is that’s when the hCG in your urine is the most concentrated, so that’s when the test may be the most effective.

But again, this is purely speculation. No one can say whether taking the test first thing in the morning actually makes it more accurate. And no matter when you take the sugar pregnancy test, you should re-check your results with a home pregnancy test from the drugstore.

How to read sugar pregnancy test results

Reading the results of a sugar pregnancy test is easy: After pouring your urine over the sugar, just wait a few minutes to see what happens. Advocates say that you’re pregnant if the sugar clumps up. If it doesn’t, you’re not. Just be sure that after getting your results — whether they’re positive or negative — you take a legitimate home pregnancy test to check again.

What does a positive sugar pregnancy test look like? What does a negative result look like?

Fans of the test say that a positive result will cause the sugar to turn dry and clumpy. If the result is negative, the sugar will just dissolve in the urine, they claim.

The sugar pregnancy test is cheap and easy to do. But there’s no evidence that it actually works, and experts don’t recommend relying on it to test for pregnancy. It’s perfectly fine to do it for fun, but if you decide to give it a try, make sure not to give too much credence to the results and confirm whether you're pregnant or not with an actual pregnancy test and a trip to your doctor.