How did ancient people prevent pregnancy?

Sexual intercourse is not a characteristic unique to humans. Animals throughout nature use sexual intercourse to satisfy their physiological needs and reproduce the next generation. It’s just that humans can take the initiative during sexual intercourse and use some contraceptive measures to prevent women from getting pregnant. In this way, there will be no more trouble and harm caused by unexpected pregnancy. So how did the ancients prevent pregnancy?

Contraception is simple and common for modern people, but it was not easy for ancient people. Because although pregnancy is a prerequisite for human reproduction, for a long time humans did not understand what pregnancy was. It wasn't until the mid-19th century that scientists figured out that conception occurs when sperm meets an egg. Contraception separates sperm and eggs, and thus contraceptive methods such as condoms, contraceptive rings and birth control pills were invented.

Although the ancients could not know exactly why people get pregnant, they knew that pregnancy was caused by sexual intercourse between men and women and the entry of male semen into the female body. They also knew how to use physical barriers to prevent pregnancy. For example, the ancient Chinese used silk oil paper, rags, etc. to insert into the female body as a barrier to prevent semen from entering deeper into the female body. There is also research that says that ancient Chinese people used fish bladders as condoms for contraception.

In addition to physical contraception, drugs were also used for contraception in ancient times. It is said that one method was to put musk and other drugs into a woman's navel, which not only had a contraceptive function, but also had a beautifying effect. After taking the medicine, the skin became as smooth as cream, with a sweet fragrance and youthfulness. This medicine can also be made into a decoction, which was called "cold medicine" in ancient times. It has the effects of contraception and abortion.

When it comes to contraception or abortion, the most effective method is to drink mercury. This method can not only prevent pregnancy, but can also "kill" a fetus that is several months pregnant, because mercury can pass through the placental barrier and cause miscarriage or premature birth. However, it causes great harm to the body after taking it and can easily lead to long-term infertility. In the past, brothel madams would usually force or secretly make prostitutes drink small amounts of mercury to prevent them from becoming pregnant and causing a series of troubles. Many prostitutes drank this mercury and were unable to have children even after they became good women.

I believe everyone is very clear about how ancient people used contraception. Although there were many methods of contraception in ancient times, most of them would threaten women's health and safety. It is precisely because of this that, with the changes of the times and the development and progress of science, new contraceptive methods have been developed and successfully replaced ancient contraceptive measures.