Meet The First Flushable and Biodegradable Pregnancy Test

Few major consumer spaces have had as little disruption as the pregnancy test space. Women-founded startup Lia seems poised to change all that. This reminds me of the time I went to a launch party for Sir Kensington’s. Back then the founders told me they were hoping to take on Heinz who exclusively owned the majority of the ketchup space with no direct competition. Fast-forward a few years and they were acquired by Unilever for an estimated $140 million, have extended well beyond ketchup and are widely available across America. Lia, with their recent launch of a biodegradable and flushable pregnancy test, seems poised to follow in the Sir Kensington’s foot steps. But with pregnancy tests.

Years in the making, Lia offers a plastic-free alternative to traditional pregnancy tests – some 20 million plastic pregnancy tests are thrown away every year in the U.S. alone. As someone who has undergone fertility treatments I know all too well that some women can go through 5-10 pregnancy tests a month as they track whether the line on the test gets darker as the days progress (indicating a rise in the pregnancy hormone, hCG). Even if you’re not struggling with fertility and are still obsessively testing, we can all appreciate that cutting down on plastic is a worthy cause. There’s also the element of privacy that makes a flushable test very appealing.

Additionally, like razors, pregnancy tests are inflated in price, so women will be happy to learn that the FDA-approved Lia tests are rather competitively priced at $13.99 for two tests. Lia is made from plant fibers, the same ones used in toilet paper and each test weighs less than six squares of the standard three-ply TP while giving women 99% accuracy. After flushing, the test degrades in ten weeks.

Lastly, visitors to the Lia website can choose to donate a test for $10 to partner organizations the company is working with, including Planned Parenthood, PreserveFertility.org and others.

The one downside? As of now you can only get Lia online and the tests ship in 1-3 business days, but it’s easy to imagine that it won’t be long before Lia is carried at a CVS near all of us.