How did women use contraception in the past, before the advent of modern contraceptive devices? The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers. In a movie starring Gong Li, there is a plot: before a prostitute receives a client, she drinks a kind of medicine, saying that she will not get pregnant after drinking it. The first time I saw the film, I was able to get to the bottom of it.
Musk “belly patch”
Some say that putting musk in the belly button of a prostitute can prevent pregnancy, such as the two sisters Zhao Feiyan and Zhao Heide, who were the most famous of China’s “redheads”. The two sisters, Zhao Feiyan and Zhao He De, were recorded as using such contraceptive measures. Of course, Zhao Feiyan and Zhao Heide two sisters can not call it a prostitute, but the same way. This paste belly button called “the belly paste”. The first time I saw a woman’s belly button, I was able to conceive a woman’s belly, but it has been lost.
Saffron washing
Folklore also records that saffron is said to be a secret contraceptive recipe from the palace court, saying that if the emperor did not like a favored court lady, he would have the eunuch hang the court lady upside down and give her saffron liquid to cleanse her lower body, which is said to cleanse the semen from the court lady’s body. It says that in the past, after the emperor favored the concubine, if he said he would not stay, the eunuch would help that woman push up to ensure that the emperor’s semen could not stay in that woman’s body, which could have a contraceptive effect.
Fertility-destroying tonics
But even now, there is no 100% effective contraception, and Wei Xiaobao is a product of contraceptive failure. In the past, many of the women in the greenhouses were sterile for life after they became virtuous, because they had been drinking a fertility-destroying soup for so long that they were sterilized, saying that taking a medicine called “cold medicine,” which can be used for contraception, also contains musk, can affect fertility, but not necessarily sterilization.
Drinking mercury for birth control
There is also the method of drinking mercury, which is indeed contraceptive, but mercury is highly toxic, so maybe drinking a small amount won’t kill you. Now, in the rural north of the country, many older people used to drink mercury as a method of contraception when they were young, which must have been very harmful to their bodies. So, in the past, prostitutes drank tea or daily food was put into a small amount of mercury, said to be very effective, of course, the prostitutes were kept in the dark, and thought it was a contraceptive incense burner ash or something, or the prostitutes know that mercury is toxic do not dare to drink ah!
Elephant dung for birth control
A prescription for birth control recorded in an Egyptian papyrus is arguably the earliest method of pharmaceutical birth control available to humans. This prescription instructs that crocodile dung is mixed with a paste-like substance, shaped into strips, and placed in the vagina to absorb semen and block sperm from entering the uterus. How effective this method is is not documented, but some people prefer to use elephant dung instead of crocodile dung.
Elephant dung was an important “topical contraceptive” used by them until the 13th century. The results of modern research are interesting: the acidic nature of elephant dung is indeed spermicidal, but the alkaline nature of crocodile dung is good for sperm survival.
Olive oil contraception
In Rome, the birthplace of another civilization, women used “olive oil contraception”, which was recommended by Aristotle, the great philosopher of the 4th century BC.
Wool “pessary” contraception
A more reliable method was proposed by a Roman obstetrician and gynecologist in the 2nd century AD. He suggested making a “pessary” of wool, mixed with a paste that would retard the movement of sperm, and then plugging the opening of the uterus. It’s not hard to see how this is really like a modern contraceptive device, the uterine cap.
Salt contraception
As for the Indians, they may have been the first to learn about the contraceptive effects of salt. An ancient medical text suggests that women can use a piece of “oiled rock salt” placed in the vagina before intercourse for contraceptive purposes, and sometimes honey or butter can be applied to the vagina to kill the sperm that enters.
Animal intestines for contraception
There are also records of the use of “condoms,” which were made from the intestinal coats of animals, including sheep, and pig bladders were an early “condom. But according to historical records, the “condom” used in the Western medieval court is animal intestine, there is a very nice name – “Dutch beanie”. The ancient Chinese also used fish fat as a “condom”. In the museum’s collection, there are condoms made from the intestines of sheep, which are somewhat close to the prototype of the modern condom.
Other contraceptive methods
Crouching down after sex to expel semen, sneezing, and bouncing up and down. The ancient Greeks believed that douching the vagina with alum, wine, seawater, creosote soap, or vinegar could also be used for contraceptive purposes.
Origin One of the earliest references to contraception comes from the Bible. In the book of Genesis, God asks man to interrupt sexual intercourse, commonly referred to as the “pull-back method.
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, 384-322 BC, is thought to have been the first to propose the use of natural chemicals such as cedar oil, lead ointment, or frankincense oil as spermicides.
The ancient Roman writer Pliny, who authored the Musica in 23-79 AD, advised his readers to refrain from sexual desire in order to avoid pregnancy. He was the first person to advocate abstinence as a method of contraception.
The male condom was invented in the 17th century by Dr. Condom, the royal physician to King Charles II. It was made from the appendix of a lamb, and the best products were up to 0.038 mm thin (today’s latex condoms are typically 0.030 mm). It was a global sensation at the time, and Dr. Condom was knighted for the invention, and Britain earned a lot of foreign currency from it.
The details of the trial of contraceptive methods are described in the autobiography of Casanova, the prodigal son of 1725-1798. He recounted his attempts to hollow out half a lemon peel and use it as a primitive uterine cap.
The discovery of the existence of the egg, the oocyte, by scientists in 1827 was a major scientific breakthrough. Previously, only sperm was known to enter a woman’s body before she could become pregnant. This discovery was the first step in understanding human reproduction.
In 1832 the Massachusetts physician Charles? Norton invented a contraceptive solution that could be injected through a syringe into the uterus after intercourse. This solution was formulated in various ways, including salt, vinegar, liquid chlorine, zinc sulfite, or aluminum potassium sulfate. The injection method was widely used for the next 40 years.
In 1838 the German physician Friedrich Wilde prescribed small uterine caps to his patients, which could be placed over the cervix during menstruation. This method of contraception was never widely used, but what is known as the “Wilde cap” became the precursor to the modern uterine cap.
In 1839, Charles Goodyear invented the vulcanization of rubber and put it into practice, producing rubber condoms, intrauterine devices, douches, and uterine caps.
In 1843 scientists figured out that when sperm meets an egg, it gets pregnant. Before that, it was thought that men created life; women only provided the place where it was conceived.
A wide variety of contraceptives, such as condoms, sponges, douches, and uterine caps, appeared in the United States in the 1970s. These were available from catalogs, pharmacists, dry goods stores, and even rubber merchants.