From Magic Spit to Honey Vaginas — Contraception Took Wild Turns Throughout History

Our ancestors were anything but ignorant when it came to matters of the body. We may think ancient women had no choice but to get pregnant or not have sex, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Women who didn’t want to embrace motherhood existed even then. And they got very creative with protecting themselves.

Crocodile Poop

Oh, hell no!

Our crazy ancients widely used animal dung to act as contraceptives — probably the least hygienic and grossest method. Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians used crocodile dung with other ingredients to form a pessary. Women inserted this into their vaginas.

A pessary is essentially a small soluble block inserted into the vagina to treat infections or act as a contraceptive.

Crocodiles weren't the only ones who contributed, though. In ancient India, people tried the same with elephant dung.

Cervical Caps with Cotton

Not only did our ancestors come with wild ideas, they also made sure to document them as well.

According to an ancient medical manuscript, Ebers Papyrus (1550 BCE), women would grind dates, acacia tree bark, and honey together into a paste, apply this mixture to seed wool, and insert the seed wool vaginally for use as a pessary.

Of course, it was what was in the cotton rather than the cotton itself that promoted its effectiveness as birth control — acacia ferments into lactic acid, a well-known spermicide. The cotton served as a physical barrier, blocking sperm.

Queen Anne’s Lace

No, it is not literally Queen Anne’s lace — it was a plant used to prevent pregnancies. The original morning-after pill.

Queen Anne’s lace or wild carrot was quite popular — so much that it was almost harvested into extinction. Women used to ingest the seeds, which could block progesterone synthesis. They used it for thousands of years as effective emergency contraception, taken within a few hours after sex. Hippocrates described its use over two millennia ago.

The only downside to this seemingly perfect seed pill was that it was easily mistaken for a similar-looking but deadly poisonous hemlock and water hemlock.

Lemon Diaphragms

Diaphragms are a popular form of contraceptive used even now. Small reusable rubber or silicone cup with a flexible rim that covers the cervix. Before sex, it is inserted deep into the vagina so that part of the rim fits snugly behind the pubic bone. It prevents the sperm from entering.

Clever ancient women designed their own diaphragms using half-cut lemons. In the 1700s, people believed citric acid had spermicidal properties.

Some women even used lemon douches after sex. It is said the famous womanizer Casanova inserted the rind of half a lemon inside his lovers before sex, using it as a barrier and a spermicide.

Pig Intestine Condoms

Believe it or not, condoms have been around for a long time.

The first use of a condom was that of King Minos of Crete. Pasiphae, his wife, employed a goat’s bladder in the vagina so that King Minos could not harm her, as his semen was said to contain “scorpions and serpents” that killed his mistresses.

Ancient Romans used condoms made of sheep, pig, and goat bladders, as well as their intestines. Interestingly, they were not worn to prevent pregnancy but to prevent the contraction of venereal disease.

Oils and Lead

A mixture of olive oil and cedar oil was used to decrease sperm motility. Aristotle suggested lavaging the vagina with oil of cedar, ointment of lead, or frankincense mixed with olive oil.

Women used this after sex because it was believed to decrease sperm motility, giving them enough time to wash out the ejaculation.

Using lead in them could have been deadly. People used to drink toxic blacksmith water because it was believed that lead could make them sterile.

Spit and the Moon

Natives of Greenland believed the moon made women pregnant.

The Greenlanders believed the moon came down to visit their wives now and then. In order to prevent getting pregnant by the lunar deity, the women would spit on their fingers and rub their bodies with it before going to sleep. Young maids avoided looking at the moon for too long. It was also custom for women to sleep on their bellies to avoid impregnation by the moon.

When a woman was ready to bear a child, she would undress under a new moon or full moon, believing the moonbeams would impregnate her.

There’s no way to know how effective these methods were in preventing pregnancies. The spit rubbing wouldn’t have worked for sure. But then or now, people still like to take control of their sex lives. Thankfully, contraception has come a long way from past toxic lead and animal poop.