'Saliva pregnancy tests are a medical breakthrough. There's a reason women aren't celebrating.'

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This week, the world's first saliva pregnancy test became available in Sydney pharmacies.

SaliStick is being talked about as the first major breakthrough in pregnancy testing since at-home urine tests were introduced in the 1960s.

My response? Meh.

As a former POAS (Pee-On-A-Stick) addict who was alternating between testing for ovulation and pregnancy for three years on-and-off, I'm not enthused.

And I can't imagine many women are celebrating this news with much excitement or relief. 

Watch: The MMOL team reacts to the SaliStick pregnancy test that detects hCG levels through saliva. Would you prefer saliva over urine? Post continues below.

We just didn't need an update to this test. The update already came in the early 1970s when we moved from injecting a woman's urine into a toad to assess pregnancy hormones, to at-home urine tests. The accessibility and convenience of these tests was absolutely a breakthrough, transforming finding out if you were pregnant into a convenient, affordable and cost-effective experience.

SaliStick's slogan is "Anywhere, Anytime" but do we really need to perform a pregnancy test "on the go"? The off-putting nature of peeing on a stick meant the experience was usually a solitary one. I quite liked the secrecy, the almost holy experience of scurrying into the bathroom in the wee hours of the morning (pun intended) to catch and test your first morning (and most accurate) urine. In the privacy of my own bathroom, I could process the disappointment or the joy, along with the anxiety and nervousness.

More often than not, the entire experience of trying to conceive is held inside a woman's body and mind anyway. We obsess over symptoms and track our cycle, waiting impatiently to either test for ovulation or pregnancy, have sex during our fertile window, or get the all clear to have a drink if we don't end the cycle pregnant. To change testing to saliva could transform that experience into something more…public.  Will we be performing this test in the living room with friends and family?

Too much emphasis is placed on the pregnancy test anyway, in my somewhat jaded opinion. A positive pregnancy test is limited info. It only informs you if you have the pregnancy hormone hCG in your system. It doesn't tell you if the baby is healthy, if your body will sustain the pregnancy, or any of the variety of things that can change your status from "pregnant" to "not pregnant."

Please don't misunderstand. We absolutely need advances in women's health and for priority to be given to research and technology to help close the gender health gap, but pregnancy tests aren't what we should focus on. 

FemTech (female technology) is one of the most exciting possibilities for helping close the data gap, improve access to care and empower women with education and personalised health insights. But this saliva "breakthrough" is underwhelming in the way it is being used. Why reinvent the wheel when it's working fine?

I can think of so many areas in women's health that need funding, research and support: endometriosis, gynaecological and breast cancers, birth trauma, maternal mental health conditions, including postpartum depression and anxiety, improving postnatal health outcomes, perimenopause and menopause, and studying the relationship between hormones and mental health, to name a few.

And those are just the ones that specifically relate to being female.

What about heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and mental health for example and looking at how all those conditions affect women differently to men (most research is conducted with male participants).

Perimenopause and menopause are rightly having a moment in the media, but so many women are still suffering in silence because they don't recognise the early symptoms of perimenopause or think they are "too young" to be going through the transition.

Gynaecologist Dr Fariba Behnia-Willison describes the gender health gap really well.

"Women make up 50 per cent of the population, yet their health needs have historically been underfunded, undervalued and shrouded in silence," she says. 

Listen: Holly, Jessie and Amelia on the new pregnancy test that might just put an end to weeing-on-a-stick, what to wear on planes and what Jessie has against tote bags.

She also makes a good point about what gets the spotlight when it comes to women's health.

"Fertility garners attention," she says (hello SaliStick), suggesting this is perhaps due to the "male involvement," while conditions like pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence, chronic pelvic pain and perimenopause and menopause remain taboo.

"Too often, women are valued only when trying to conceive or carrying a child – not for their individual health and well-being," she added.

Ouch. Perhaps all those issues remain taboo because they aren't cute or sexy, which is typically what gets women noticed.

Maybe that is the hidden genius of SaliStick. Pregnancy tests are palatable (often they lead to something cute) so perhaps this was a strategic ploy by the start-up that created the test to receive millions of dollars in funding to create a saliva-based technology that can hopefully have countless other applications. 

Now that we have the technology, let's use it for something actually groundbreaking: enhancing women's health.

Feature Image: Supplied.

Sassica is a freelance writer who, when she is not kid-wrangling, writes health, parenting and other lifestyle articles and personal essays. You can find her here.