Baby Bust: A Review of Ancient Contraceptives

Women can be fertile up to forty years, and in that length of time many things can change.  These changes do affect a woman’s desire to get (or not) getting pregnant.  Emotional readiness, population control, financial stability, social/cultural preferences, health/medical well-being, and more are all reasons that affect a woman’s desire to carry a pregnancy to term.  The concern with preventing pregnancy is a long standing one that has existed for centuries, and it has not been until recently that pregnancy prevention has advanced to provide a safe outcome.  The failures of the past, however, are what have led to the successes of the present, and today’s blog post will discuss the past technologies for contraception. 

Figure 1: A Sea Sponge Pessary

One of the most common means of birth control is coitus interruptus, or more popularly known as the withdrawal method.  The earliest mention of this method is attributed to several sources, including the Biblical Old Testament, the Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, and Master Tung-H’suan of ancient China.  Despite its poor results it continues to be advocated for today.  The Chinese and ancient Indians (of India) also advocated for a related technique known as coitus obstructus, which is a technique where men would put pressure on their testicles to stop sperm from entering the woman.  The ancient Egyptians, however, recognized a successful means of preventing pregnancy, which is the continuation of breast feeding.  This prevents ovulation and reduces the likelihood of the mother becoming pregnant again.

Vaginal suppositories and pessaries, devices meant to block the passage of sperm into the vagina, were also common in the past.  These took various forms, ranging from conservative to quite bizarre (by our modern standards).  African women were known to use plugs of chopped grass or cloth, Japanese women employed bamboo tissue paper, Middle Eastern, Slavic, and Greek women stuck simply to cloth, while Jews in the past utilized a sea sponge wrapped in silk (Figure 1).  Meanwhile, women in New Zealand women put rocks in their vaginal canal to prevent pregnancy.  More unconventional products used as pessaries included a mixture of crocodile dung, honey, and sodium carbonate (baking soda), which formed into a gum.  This was quite popular among ancient Egyptians.  Ancient Romans utilized a similar concoction, without the crocodile dung, when attempting to prevent pregnancy.  Pessaries eventually evolved to mixtures utilizing a variety of other chemicals, including potassium carbonate, ammonium chloride, coco butter, and quinine, some of which was used quite recently in the historical record as a means of preventing pregnancy.

Figure 2: Linen Condoms were commonplace among ancient Egyptians

Related to vaginal suppositories were condoms, which were common throughout history but not in the incarnation that they are known today.  The earliest recorded incidence of condom use was in 3000 BC and is associated with King Minos Crete who utilized goat bladders as a means of preventing exposure to venereal diseases.  Beginning at about 1000 BC ancient Egyptians began employing linen as a means of protecting themselves from venereal diseases (Figure 2).  Other sources claim that cave paintings and other historical documents make mention of condoms, although the connection to preventing pregnancy was not realized until recently.

Last but not least people believed that certain herbal remedies could prevent pregnancy and even in some cases cause infertility.  One of the most popular herbal remedies was silphium, a fennel plant that was indigenous to modern day Libya.  This plant was so highly promoted as having contraceptive properties that it was eventually made extinct due to overharvesting of the plant.  After this occurred, other herbal remedies were used, including rue, Artemisia, majoram, parsley, thyme, lavender, worm fern, and Queen Anne’s lace (Figure 3).  Dioscorides, a Roman physician, identified the following, when consumed, would lead to women being unable to conceive: white poplar and mule kidney, willow, asparagus, pepper, ivy, mint, and axe-weed.  Ancient Romans also believed that a drink concocted of hare’s stomach would lead to infertility, as well as wearing a cat’s liver would prevent conception.  

Figure 3: Queen Anne's Lace was believed to be a plant that prevented pregnancy

The lengths that people went to prevent pregnancy demonstrate a long history of a desire to control birth outcomes.  As ancient scholars rightly recognized at the time preventing pregnancy was safer than abortions, which were common when preventative methods failed.  Today we recognize the same exists today, but at least contraceptives used today, thanks to medical advances, have become more reliable and safer.

Bibliography

Davidson, E.R.W.  2012.  No Title.  Hektoen International: A Journal of Medical Humanities.  http://www.hektoeninternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=211&Itemid=627

Dowsing, S.  1999.  Contraception and Abortion in the Early Roman Empire: A Critical Examination of Ancient Sources and Modern Interpretations.  Master’s Thesis: University of Ottawa.

Evans, M.L. 2008.  “A Desire to Control: Contraception Throughout the Ages.”  Historia Medicinae.  1: 1-4.

London, K. 2016.  “The History of Birth Control.”  Yale-New Haven Teacher’s Institute.  http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1982/6/82.06.03.x.html

No Author.  No Date.  “13.2: Birth Control in Antiquity.”  http://www.uic.edu/classes/osci/osci590/13_2%20Birth%20Control%20in%20Antiquity.htm