Long before there were condoms, birth control pills, and our modern contraceptives, 10 unusual things were tried by our ancestors to help prevent pregnancy. Although they were far more inventive than we often give them credit for, many of these methods were hit‑or‑miss when it came to actually stopping a pregnancy.

10 Unusual Things in Birth Control History

Some of the earliest forms of birth control were more bizarre than others, and a few of them are still whispered about today. As you’ll see, these older methods weren’t always healthy for the men and women who used them—some were downright terrifying.

1. Juniper Berries

The juniper plant bears blue‑or‑reddish fruits better known as juniper berries. They flavor foods, season pickled meats, and even find their way into cosmetics and perfumes.

Many ancient Native American tribes discovered a range of uses for these berries. They would pierce the berries and string them into necklaces, and they also brewed a tea from the berries that was consumed for three consecutive days as a contraceptive ritual.

Modern herbalists note that juniper berries can act as a natural contraceptive; they alter the uterine lining, making it less hospitable for embryo implantation. However, pregnant or nursing women should steer clear of them because of potentially serious side effects.

Other herbs—such as wild carrot seed, smartweed leaves, neem, and rutin—have also been used historically for birth control. But remember, self‑medicating with herbs can be risky without professional guidance.

I’m just another bearded guy trying to write my way through life. Visit my blog at MDavidScott.com

2. Coca‑Cola

Coca‑Cola, the fizzy classic we all love, once found its way into contraceptive folklore during the 1950s and 1960s. In regions where conventional birth control was scarce or pricey, people believed the drink’s carbonic acid could kill sperm, and the glass bottle was dubbed the perfect “shake‑and‑shoot” applicator.

Harvard researcher Deborah Anderson and two colleagues actually tested Coke in sperm‑containing tubes. While the soda did kill a large portion of the sperm quickly, they warned that sperm could still reach the cervical canal faster than the liquid could be applied.

The study earned them an Ig Nobel Prize—an award celebrating research that first makes people laugh, then think. Anderson cautioned that using Coke as a douche could strip away healthy vaginal bacteria, leading to infections, and could also erode the top layer of vaginal cells, increasing susceptibility to sexually transmitted diseases.

So while the story makes for a fun urban legend, it’s best to enjoy Coca‑Cola as a refreshing beverage, not a birth‑control method.

3. Pennyroyal

Pennyroyal is a tiny member of the mint family, long used to soothe upset stomachs, ease flatulence, and treat colds. It’s also one of the few herbs historically touted as a natural contraceptive, and it still sees occasional use today.

According to the Orgone Biophysical Research Lab, Switzerland’s Women’s Health Center prescribes pennyroyal and similar herbs to halt pregnancy. They advise taking the herb immediately after intercourse—before implantation—to maximize any potential effect. Pennyroyal can also be brewed as a tea, though it should only be consumed for short periods at specific points in the menstrual cycle.

Scientific evidence supporting pennyroyal’s efficacy as a birth control method is lacking, and the herb can be toxic. Over‑use may damage the liver, kidneys, and nervous system, so it must be approached with extreme caution.

4. Lemons

When life gives you lemons, you might be tempted to turn them into a spermicide. In antiquity, acidic fruit juices—especially lemon—were applied to sponges or mixed with honey to create a makeshift contraceptive barrier.

The famed 18th‑century lover Casanova even fashioned a cervical cap from half a pulped lemon for his many paramours. The cap’s acidity could block and neutralize sperm, offering a surprisingly effective—though unsafe—method of birth control.

5. Cotton

Cotton is the soft, fibrous plant that supplies towels, clothing, fishing nets, coffee filters, tents, and even cottonseed oil. Yet it also played a role in historical contraception.

In China’s Jiangxi province, peasants who cooked with cottonseed oil often remained childless, leading locals to believe the oil acted as a male contraceptive. Scientific studies later showed that men who consumed cottonseed oil experienced higher infertility rates.

Beyond oil, cotton was woven into other birth‑control practices. Enslaved women in the United States chewed cotton‑root bark to prevent pregnancy; the bark interferes with the corpus luteum, disrupting ovulation. Some also brewed tea from the root, though its effectiveness remains uncertain.

6. Weasel Testicles

Not every ancient contraceptive was elegant. Between AD 100 and AD 500, Europeans believed that a woman could drape weasel testicles around her neck during intercourse to ward off pregnancy.

If the necklace idea sounded too odd, some women tied the testicles around their thigh during sex. Modern scholars agree this method was ineffective and certainly not something to try today.

7. Animal Intestines

By the 1400s, people were already experimenting with animal intestines to fashion early condoms. Wrapping the penis proved a smarter way to prevent conception and even offered some protection against sexually transmitted infections.

The ancient Romans employed linen, animal intestines, and bladders—mostly from sheep and goats—to create rudimentary condoms. In China and Japan, innovators used silk, oiled paper, or lamb intestines to produce “glans” condoms that covered only the tip of the penis. Some Japanese variants even featured tortoise shells and animal horns.

8. Mercury

One of the most hazardous birth‑control experiments involved drinking mercury—or lead—in ancient China. Concubines believed that ingesting enough of these heavy metals would render them sterile without causing immediate death.

Mercury exposure is notorious for causing sterility, brain damage, kidney failure, and death. Women who drank it hoped the organ‑damaging effects would guarantee childlessness.

Sometimes mercury was mixed with other poisons like arsenic and strychnine. Historically, it also served as a topical antimicrobial, a dental treatment, and even an ingredient in eye drops and laxatives.

9. Honey

Honey, the sweet nectar bees produce, was more than a culinary delight in ancient Egypt—it also featured in contraceptive recipes, likely after crocodile dung proved ineffective.

The Ebers Papyrus (circa 1550 BC) records a mixture of acacia berries and colocynth (bitter apple) blended with honey. This sticky concoction was fashioned into a makeshift tampon and inserted vaginally.

Egyptians believed this honey‑based blend could prevent pregnancy for up to three years, though modern science doubts its efficacy.

10. Crocodile Dung

Some of the earliest recorded contraceptives date back to 1850 BC in ancient Egypt. The Ramesseum Papyrus, a medical text from the 17th century BC, recommended applying crocodile dung as a birth‑control barrier.

Because the dung is thick and sticky, Egyptians thought it could form a wall to block sperm penetration. The practice may also have held religious significance, as the crocodile was linked to Set—the deity associated with hemorrhaging, abortion, and miscarriage.

Brace yourself for a deep‑dive into 10 horrifying facts about the human form of mad cow disease. Variant Creutzfeldt‑Jakob disease (vCJD) is a staggeringly rare, yet chilling, neuro‑degenerative disorder that still puzzles scientists who are scrambling to piece together its mysteries.

10 horrifying facts at a glance

10 It Is A Prion Disease

Prion illnesses—also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies—are a rare class of brain disorders that warp the brain’s architecture and can hop from one organism to another. Among humans, vCJD stands out as one of the deadliest members of this family.

Every person carries normal prion proteins in their brain, yet scientists are still untangling the exact job these proteins perform. In vCJD, a rogue prion infiltrates the brain and hijacks these normal proteins, forcing them into an abnormal shape.

These malformed prions then cling to healthy proteins, bending them into a twisted form that destroys neurons and creates sponge‑like gaps in the tissue. As the infection spreads, brain damage escalates and the patient experiences a cascade of psychiatric and neurological symptoms.

9 It Is Transferred Directly From Cows

The primary route for acquiring the disease‑causing prion is by consuming beef from cattle afflicted with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the infamous “mad cow” condition. BSE itself is sparked by a misfolded prion that spreads inside the animal.

Although the exact origin remains hazy, the prevailing theory points to cattle ingesting feed contaminated with the meat of scrapie‑infected sheep. The problem snowballed in the United Kingdom when infected carcasses were fed to young calves, seeding the outbreak that later leapt to humans.

While the vast majority of cases stem from eating contaminated beef, a handful of individuals have contracted vCJD through blood transfusions from infected donors, underscoring the disease’s stealthy transmission potential.

8 It Is A Form of A Larger Disease

vCJD is merely one branch of the broader umbrella known as Creutzfeldt‑Jakob disease (CJD), a collection of disorders caused by infectious prions that travel to the human brain via distinct pathways.

The most common variant, sporadic CJD (sCJD), appears without any known cause; researchers suspect a spontaneous misfolding of a normal prion protein, possibly linked to a specific gene variant.

Two other forms round out the quartet: familial CJD, passed down through a faulty gene that produces misshapen proteins, and iatrogenic CJD, an ultra‑rare scenario where medical instruments contaminated with prions infect a new patient. Together, these four diseases make CJD one of the most devastating brain disorders known.

7 It Created Another Disease

Kuru, a terrifying prion disease that once ravaged Papua New Guinea’s tribal communities, emerged from a cultural practice of consuming the brains of deceased relatives as a sign of respect.

Even after the cannibalistic ritual was abandoned in the early 1960s, the disease lingered because its incubation period can stretch beyond a decade. The brain damage seen in Kuru mirrors that of vCJD, with misshapen prions attacking neural tissue.

Scientists hypothesize that Kuru originated when a tribe member unknowingly harbored a form of Creutzfeldt‑Jakob disease, possibly vCJD, and was eaten by others. Comparative studies of prion structures confirmed that Kuru’s agents share strikingly similar transmission properties with those of CJD, suggesting a grim lineage.

6 There Are No Viable Treatment Options

At present, medicine offers no definitive cure for vCJD. Once symptoms surface, the average survival window hovers around thirteen months, despite aggressive attempts with drugs such as amantadine and pentosan polysulphate.

Nevertheless, isolated successes have surfaced. One 22‑year‑old patient received pentosan polysulphate—a compound designed to slow neuronal destruction—and managed to survive a remarkable fifty‑one months after symptom onset.

While this outlier fuels hope, the prevailing clinical approach remains palliative: easing discomfort, managing symptoms, and providing supportive care while researchers continue the hunt for a true therapeutic breakthrough.

5 It Causes Awful Psychiatric Symptoms

The clinical picture of vCJD mirrors that of its CJD cousins: the rogue prion ravages the nervous system, prompting a slew of unsettling symptoms.

Early on, patients suffer from motor disturbances—uncontrollable jerks, muscle spasms, and coordination loss. As the disease progresses, hallucinations, memory lapses, and even temporary blindness may appear.

Within a year of the first warning signs, most patients lose the ability to speak or move, slipping into a coma. Secondary infections like pneumonia often claim their lives during this final stage. Notably, vCJD tends to strike younger individuals, with an average age of 28, unlike other CJD forms that typically affect middle‑aged or older adults.

4 A Diagnosis Can Only Be Confirmed After Death

Because vCJD is exceedingly rare, pinpointing it in a living patient poses a formidable challenge. Physicians first rule out more common mental illnesses through spinal taps and MRI scans, hunting for the tell‑tale signs of prion‑induced damage.

Definitive confirmation, however, hinges on examining brain tissue—either via a biopsy (which carries significant risk and may miss the affected region) or, more reliably, through a full autopsy after death.

Researchers are forging ahead with less invasive diagnostics, such as a specialized spinal‑fluid test that detects a unique protein linked to neuronal degeneration. With further refinement, this could usher in a pre‑mortem confirmation method.

3 It Is Extremely Rare

Globally, Creutzfeldt‑Jakob disease strikes roughly three individuals per million, placing it firmly in the ultra‑rare category. vCJD accounts for less than one‑fifth of all CJD cases, with only 231 recorded infections since its 1996 discovery.

The United Kingdom bears the brunt, reporting 178 cases—a reflection of the country’s historic mad‑cow outbreak. The United States trails far behind, with just four documented instances, two of which involved travelers returning from the UK.

Among the 231 known cases, three resulted from blood transfusions, illustrating a rare but notable iatrogenic pathway. This 1.3 % transmission rate has prompted health authorities to advise all individuals with any form of CJD to refrain from donating blood.

2 It Has Spread Worldwide

Even though vCJD is scarce, its reach has leapt beyond the UK’s borders. Beyond the 178 British cases and four American ones, a further 49 infections have surfaced across ten other nations.

France tops the list with 27 cases, followed by Spain (five), Ireland (four), the Netherlands and Italy (three each), Portugal and Canada (two each), and single occurrences in Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan.

While the UK’s case count peaked in 1999 and has been on a decline, other countries show a rising trend. Portugal, for instance, now reports a higher incidence relative to its cattle population, hinting that it could eventually overtake the UK if current trajectories persist.

1 Awareness Is Increasing

Thankfully, proactive measures in both the United States and the United Kingdom have curbed the disease’s spread. Strict regulations now bar high‑risk animal parts—especially spinal cord and brain material—from entering the human food chain, and cattle over 30 months are routinely tested for BSE.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitors every CJD case, meticulously analyzing trends to guide future interventions. In 1997, the CDC launched the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, which conducts advanced testing, including brain autopsies, to deepen our understanding of prion illnesses.

Although vCJD has not been eradicated, these concerted scientific and public‑health efforts have dramatically reduced its impact, offering a glimmer of hope amid an otherwise grim landscape.