This is real and the Egyptians did use the wheat and barley method for pregnancy testing. Surprisingly it’s not complete hokum because it did work for detecting pregnancy 70-85% of the time if not the specific gender
It definitely did not tell anyone the gender. It’s been tested and it can, as you said, detect pregnancy more than random chance but not perfectly. It cannot predict the gender.
This is real and the Egyptians did use the wheat and barley method for pregnancy testing. Surprisingly it’s not complete hokum because it did work for detecting pregnancy 70-85% of the time if not the specific gender
https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/pee-pregnant-history-science-urine-based-pregnancy-tests/
It definitely did not tell anyone the gender. It’s been tested and it can, as you said, detect pregnancy more than random chance but not perfectly. It cannot predict the gender.