The “SaliStick”, costing around £8, could spell the end of traditional tests that involve urinating on a stick.
Israeli developer Salignostics created the saliva test based on technology used in Covid-19 test kits.
It uses a foam-tipped stick which is placed in the woman’s mouth for a few seconds, then transferred to a tube where the result shows within a few minutes.
Trials reportedly showed the new device identified pregnancies 95 percent of the time, while giving a false positive in fewer than three in 100 cases.
This makes it slightly less reliable than most urine pregnancy tests, which are around 99 percent accurate.
However, Salignostics co-founder Guy Krief told the Mail on Sunday his product was expected to be refined further.
He said: “It’s a lovely idea if you’re trying for a baby to be able to do the test in front of your partner – and hopefully celebrate the goods news together immediately.”
Both types of test work by detecting human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a hormone specific to pregnancy which starts to be produced around six days after fertilisation.
Salignostics was founded by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who have focused on use of saliva in diagnostics.
Their other products include kits for detection of malaria, cardiac risk and H. pylori bacteria.
