This is how ancient people used contraception!

Modern women can simply take birth control pills if they want to avoid pregnancy, but in ancient times, there were many different ways to avoid pregnancy, which were not only cruel but also very perverted. Let's take a look at how ancient people avoided pregnancy!

1. Contraception with decoction

Before the advent of modern contraceptives, how did prostitutes in the past take contraceptive measures?

There are few records of it in history books, nor in unofficial history, and it is also downplayed in film and television dramas. There is a plot in a movie starring Gong Li: a prostitute drinks a kind of medicine before receiving a customer, which is said to prevent her from getting pregnant. Of course, there is no way to verify what ingredients this medicine contains, and there are many different opinions about the contraceptive methods used by ancient prostitutes.

2. Musk

It is said that putting musk into a prostitute's navel can prevent pregnancy. For example, there are records of the two sisters Zhao Feiyan and Zhao Hede, who are considered the most "fatal beauties" in China, taking such contraceptive measures. Of course, the sisters Zhao Feiyan and Zhao Hede cannot be called prostitutes, but they did end up in the same place. This kind of sticker for the navel is called "La Du Tie". If you stick it on the belly button, it can end the conception function of a woman's belly and she will no longer be able to get pregnant. However, this "belly patch" has been lost.

3. Saffron

There are also folk records that saffron is a secret contraceptive recipe passed down from the palace. It is said that if the emperor does not like a favored palace maid, he will let the eunuch hang the palace maid upside down and wash her lower body with saffron liquid. It is said that this can wash the semen in the palace maid's body. There are also some unofficial histories that say that in the past, after the emperor favored a concubine, if he did not want to keep the semen, the eunuch would help the woman with massage to ensure that the emperor's semen would not remain in the woman's body, thus achieving the effect of contraception.

4. "Cooling medicine"

Even now, there is no 100% effective contraceptive measure. Wei Xiaobao is the product of contraceptive failure. In the past, many prostitutes became infertile for life after they became good women. This was because they drank a kind of soup medicine that destroyed their fertility for a long time, leading to sterilization. It is said that they took a kind of contraceptive medicine called "cooling medicine", which also contains musk, which will affect fertility but not necessarily sterilize them.

5. Casing

There are also records of the use of "condoms", which used animal casings. Some say they were from sheep, and some say pig bladders were early "condoms". However, according to historical records, the "condoms" used in the Western medieval courts were animal casings, and they had a nice name - "Dutch cap". Ancient Chinese people also used fish bladders as "condoms". Among the museum's collection are condoms made from sheep intestines by ancient people, which are somewhat similar to the prototype of modern condoms.

6. Animal feces

More than 3,000 years ago in India and Egypt, the feces of animals such as crocodiles and elephants, which were believed to have mysterious powers, were also used in contraceptive prescriptions. In fact, because these animal feces are highly acidic, they do have a certain spermicidal effect. However, the strong odor of animal feces would obviously affect the "sexual interest" of ancient couples.

7. Drinking Mercury

There is also the method of drinking mercury. Mercury can indeed be used as a contraceptive, but mercury is highly toxic. Maybe drinking a small amount will not kill you. Now, in the northern rural areas of our country, many elderly people used to drink mercury as a method of contraception when they were young, which is definitely very harmful to the body. Therefore, in the past, a small amount of mercury was put into the tea or daily food that prostitutes drank. It was said that the effect was very good. Of course, the prostitutes were kept in the dark and thought it was incense ash or something that could be used for contraception. Otherwise, the prostitutes would not dare to drink it because they knew mercury was poisonous! According to modern scientific research, the use of mercury for contraception does make sense. Mercury can cause menstrual disorders in women. It has been reported that the incidence of menstrual disorders in female workers who are exposed to the highest allowable concentration level of mercury vapor in the working environment for a long time is 2-3 times higher than that in the normal control group. Common symptoms include excessive menstrual flow, prolonged menstruation and dysmenorrhea. There are also cases where the menstrual flow is too small and the number of days of menstruation is reduced. Mercury can cross the placenta and cause miscarriage or premature birth.

8. Persimmon pedicle

There is also a folk remedy that says to dry 7 persimmon stems with tiles, eat them for 7 consecutive days, which is 49 persimmons, and drink them with cold boiling water. It can keep you infertile for a year, but you cannot eat persimmons within a year. If you want to get pregnant, eat 7 more persimmon stems. It sounds a bit weird, but according to modern medical research, persimmon stalks contain oleanolic acid and betulinic acid. Chinese medicine often uses it with ginseng and clove powder to make persimmon powder, which has the effect of reducing qi and stopping hiccups. The flowers, roots and skin of persimmon are also very good medicinal materials. It can be said that the whole body of the persimmon tree is a treasure. During the Republic of China period, a prostitute wrote a book similar to a memoir which introduced a plot about contraception. She said that before receiving a customer, the brothel owner would make her drink a kind of soup which tasted sweet and sour and was very delicious. After drinking it, you will never get pregnant again... But the soup that this prostitute drank should be water brewed with persimmon stalk powder, but there is also a saying that persimmon stalks are brewed with rice wine.

9. Toxic drugs

In ancient and modern China, prostitutes used certain toxic drugs in traditional Chinese medicine for contraception, such as the mercury mentioned above, and arsenic or strychnine for contraception. Although these drugs can cause death in large doses, small doses can kill the fetus in the womb. Therefore, prostitutes who use this method of contraception are permanently and irreversibly infertile for life. Often, the madam secretly gives them drugs when they first start working as prostitutes!

10. Rhythm contraception method

In fact, there were quite a lot of contraceptive methods in ancient my country. The things similar to condoms mentioned above and contraceptive pills also appeared in "Classic of Mountains and Seas". There was also an introduction to the safe period contraceptive method in ancient documents. Of course, the contraceptive methods used by ordinary women and prostitutes in ancient times were quite different. Prostitutes used irreversible methods.