Now here’s a supply that doesn’t make most top ten lists or
even top 100 lists of medical supplies to acquire before finding ourselves in
Mad Max world.  And yet, it will turn out
to be a very critical item for some families. 

Some women can feel changes occurring in their bodies before
a period is even missed.  Some women are
so irregular that they don’t even know when the period should be missed.  Many report significant changes in early
pregnancy, some which might even be alarming if the woman wasn’t pregnant. 

Doctors always want to know if there is any chance a female
patient is pregnant.  It’s not a time to
get offended if a doctor is very inquisitive about this issue.  You might know
you aren’t pregnant; you might know
your teenage daughter isn’t pregnant. 
But we’ve all heard stories of women and girls who didn’t know they were
pregnant.  (My stepmother even had a
co-worker who was told she was infertile and whose own doctor said she wasn’t
pregnant, and found out she was having a baby when she was in the hospital
having the baby.)  A doctor who doesn’t
know you really well is going to prefer a test. 
There are good reasons for this.

The first significant reason is to be able to differentiate
between appendicitis and an ectopic pregnancy, both of which can be
life-threatening conditions. 
Appendicitis in the early stages and without any advanced medical care
may be treated with antibiotics.  An
ectopic pregnancy needs an entirely different approach.  One might wish to differentiate between early
menopause and pregnancy.  In a young
woman with nausea and vomiting without a fever, pregnancy is going to be one of
the first guesses.  A cheap pregnancy
test can save a lot of time and resources. 

A second equally important reason to know whether a woman is
in the early stages of pregnancy is to determine whether medications are safe
to administer.  Before any medication is
prescribed to a woman of child-bearing age, the doctor always asks (at least,
they always did with me) whether there is any chance she could be
pregnant.  Many medications, especially
antibiotics, are contraindicated in pregnant patients.  Even most OTC pain relievers carry a risk of
affecting the fetus. 

While pregnancy tests are not added to the medical supplies
for satisfying curiosity (which is why most people take pregnancy tests early
on), knowing as soon as possible can help a person make wiser choices in diet,
know when to start taking a possibly limited supply of prenatal vitamins, and
know when to be more cautious with risky foods like raw eggs (cookie dough or
cake batter–salmonella risk) or homemade cheese (listeria risk). 

Individual pregnancy tests still run around $5-8 each at
grocery stores, which makes stocking up a little prohibitive for most
people.  However, as I happily discovered
a while back, you can buy 20-25 of them for the same price on Amazon.  That’s a much better deal for the home
medical kit.  I was shocked myself at
how inexpensive they are and just added a box to my Amazon cart.  And at that price, you can even afford to use
a few just to satisfy curiosity

Most pregnancy tests have a shelf life of 2-3 years past the
date of manufacture.  Of course, like
with many supplies, the storage temperature is important.  Temperatures that are too hot or too cold
will shorten the shelf life and possibly affect accuracy.

If tests are expired, most often they will yield a false
negative result—not pregnant when in fact the woman is.  However, test results will likely still be
accurate if the woman is a few weeks past the missed period. 

In initial days and weeks of collapse, some women may forget
their birth control pills.  They may run
out.  Others, especially younger women
and teenage girls, may throw caution to the wind.  We see this often happened throughout history
in uncertain times.  A rapidly changing
diet and stress will also come into play. 
Life in uncertain times will already be challenging enough.  Dealing with disease and illnesses will make
challenges that much more difficult. 
Knowing whether a patient is pregnant will help a doctor provide the
best possible care, regardless of what is going on in the world.

Links to related
posts:

Appendicitis–Prepping for the Possibility in a Post-Collapse World

Dealing with Ectopic Pregnancy in a Bad Situation

Pasteurizing Eggs

OTC Pain Relievers