In order to avoid pregnancy, our ancestors used tricks unimaginable for a modern person.
At all times there were people who wanted intimate relationships without planning to have a child. But if there are numerous achievements of modern medicine at our service, then in the old days, men and women were protected by whoever they were.
There was a crocodile here
Noble Egyptian women of the era of the pharaohs used contraceptive tampons with might and main - they took lumps of cotton, flavored with acacia juice, honey or resin. They also used sea sponges soaked in vinegar. The point was this: vinegar is able to create an acidic environment, the juice of acacia leaves - too, it contains lactic acid. And in an acidic environment, sperm do not live long.
Egyptian commoners did not hesitate to protect themselves with tampons with crocodile excrement; this wondrous substance also creates an acidic reaction. Indian women used elephant droppings for the same purpose, smeared themselves in interesting places with a mixture of oils and salt. Men, however, just in case, hedged themselves with the help of complex yogic practices such as violi mudra.
For Arab women, doctors recommended the use of pomegranate juice (again, life-saving acid), earwax (it is not very clear why) and even narcotic substances like hashish to soak tampons. Their men also participated in the process of contraception - they rubbed their reproductive organs with oils and onions.
In medieval Europe, cotton swabs or even paper soaked in acetic acid solution were popular: simple, cheap and cheerful.
Promotional video:
Eat at the root
Among the ancient Incas and Aztecs among women who did not want to become mothers yet, it was customary to chew the root of Dioscorea or drink a decoction from it before intimacy. It's funny that today some contraceptives contain the same active ingredient that is found in abundance in the root of Dioscorea - progestogen.
Chinese women, in addition to various tricky teas, took dried and crushed beaver testicles aged in an alcohol solution for the same purpose. Indian women, after tender dates, thoughtfully and for a long time chewed carrot seeds. And the guineas drank lemon juice.
The modern IUD has many predecessors. In ancient times, Japanese women introduced a spiral made of the finest skin into the cervical canal. The same Japanese women, as well as Chinese women, pushed balls of silver inside themselves. And the ancient Romans used gold rings for the same purposes.
Douching was not invented yesterday either. Than only ancient women did not irrigate themselves - with a solution of lemon juice, and broths of willow leaves, juniper or lavender. Well, all of these drugs had spermicidal properties and somewhat reduced the likelihood of pregnancy.
Love in Russian
In Russia, women also used douching, and they used ordinary urine for this. There are even references to this ingenious method of contraception in Domostroy.
Among the Slavs, it was a popular belief that if you spit or sneeze into a frog's mouth before meeting a good fellow in the hayloft, the subsequent proximity to pregnancy will not lead. There was, however, an alternative - to eat a live bee.
In Peter's times, the custom was widespread after stormy caresses to send a woman to the steam room. Not that it always worked, but there was some sense from the point of view of contraception here: high temperatures can significantly reduce sperm motility.
Product number …
The real ancestor of the condom was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun - a reusable cover, presumably made of fish skin. Ancient Greek warriors, like the ancient Roman ones, going on military campaigns, took with them products from animal intestines. Meanwhile, in mysterious China, something similar was being made from oiled silk paper.
As for the mass production of condoms, it goes back to the 16th century - it was at this time that widespread epidemics of syphilis began in Europe. An Italian doctor named Fallopius writes a whole treatise called "The French Disease", in which he strongly recommends that men use a linen cover soaked in a special compound during casual relationships. Such a cover is designed to save not so much from pregnancy as from infection.
LYUDMILA POTAPCHUK
