Be Fruitful but Don’t Multiply: Controlling Fertility Before the Pill

Bronze pessary, Roman, 200 BCE-400 CE. Credit: Science Museum, London. Depictions of ancient medicine focus strongly on medicinal plants and the ways they were used. Until recent years very little consideration has been given to the effectiveness of ancient medicine. This is especially true for gynecological material mentioned in ancient texts. But the inclusion of birth control or fertility management methods in ancient texts is significant for two important reasons. First, the fact that there is evidence of birth control throughout history shows that women’s desire for control of their bodies has been present for nearly as long as we have printed sources. Second, with more modern consideration slowly being given to ancient medical knowledge, there is evidence that these techniques were both desired and, somewhat effective. This shifts our understanding of family dynamics and the autonomy of women in history. Examples in ancient Greece and Egypt show that ancient peoples were discussing and creating solutions to fertility management. In early modern England this knowledge was no longer present in medical texts, but women still found ways to share and access it.

Ancient Greece is known for its distinct culture and innovations that influenced other empires. One such innovation was the discovery of giant fennel and its fertility management benefits. Silphium, a variety of giant fennel, was only found in the hills near the city of Cyrene in modern Libya and quickly became the city’s most notable feature.1 The coins of Cyrene were minted to feature a woman’s figure pointing to both her womb and to a likeness of giant fennel above her;2 a clear allusion to the plants use. The seeds of the plant were processed into a juice which women drank once a month for preventative purposes. Alternatively, the leaves of the plant were mashed and mixed with wool and inserted after sex as an emergency contraceptive.3 Eventually, due to over harvesting and the failure to cultivate it successfully elsewhere, giant fennel became extinct.4 The use of the seeds in the application of giant fennel likely contributed to its eventual extinction as cultivation of the plant was already very difficult and attempts to plant giant fennel in other areas always failed.

The extinction of the giant fennel, though sad for ecological reasons, is an important clue to the desire for birth control in the ancient world. The plant, maybe one of the only effective means of birth control available to the people of ancient Greece, was so valuable and desired that it could not keep up with demand. This shows that the ancient world sought out birth control en masse. This challenges assumptions that these are modern concerns and opens up a new way of understanding the daily lives of ancient people. Recontextualizing the desires of ancient people and acknowledging the desire for bodily autonomy in the ancient world helps to destigmatize the current struggles for bodily autonomy.

Myths are also a strong indicator a cultures values, and ancient Greek myths contain allusions to birth control. Consider the myth of Persephone and Hades. In the myth Persephone is kidnapped by Hades and brought to the underworld to be his bride. Before her absence is noticed and she is located Persephone eats some pomegranate seeds, which ultimately seal her fate of being in the underworld for a portion of the year.5 By eating the food of the underworld Persephone is permanently tied to the underworld and compelled to spend several months of the year there. The months Persephone is in the underworld are the winter months when the land is infertile. This reference to pomegranate seeds is a reference to the use of pomegranate seeds to decrease fertility; ancient women chewed pomegranate seeds to reduce their chances of pregnancy.6

This was common knowledge when the myth was at its height, but the cultural context was lost for many years. There is little evidence that this method of contraception was effective biologically. Then again, recent studies have shown that rats fed the active ingredient from pomegranate seeds were unable to gestate a viable fetus. When given the compound prior to fertilization the embryo did not embed.7 This study was not able to be replicated in hamsters and there is not enough evidence to say if this method would be effective in humans. Nonetheless, the ancient Greeks used the seeds in hopes that they would work.

Elsewhere in the ancient world fertility management techniques were not shared as myths but in the medical texts of the day. In Egypt both the Ebers Papyrus and the Kahun Papyrus devote sections to birth control methods, the Kahun Papyrus was a papyrus devoted solely to gynecological practices.8 The Ebers Papyrus contains the earliest recorded medical knowledge of Egypt including descriptions of vaginal pessaries to prevent pregnancies. Vaginal pessaries could be combinations of herbs, plant fibers, dates and acacia gum inserted into the vagina prior to intercourse to prevent fertilization.9 The Kahun Papyrus also contains many uses of acacia gum in its birth control methods following the knowledge of the Ebers Papyrus in pessary application but adding ingredients like alligator dung.10 Acacia gum was the most common ingredient in gynecological applications in ancient Egypt and modern testing of acacia gum shows that it has some spermicidal properties in lab conditions.11 The acacia gum produces lactic acid which is how synthetic spermicidal gels work.12

In Elizabethan England there were fewer direct discussions of birth control in medical texts because of the cultural avoidance of discussions of sex, but birth control methods were still shared. Mostly knowledge was shared between acquaintances, and within herbalism books and cookbooks.13 Often, to avoid direct reference to sex, herbs were labelled as miscarriage risks ostensibly so the reader would avoid such combinations if pregnant, but the reality was that this was a convenient way to share birth control methods in a society that was squeamish about open discussions of sex.14 Queen Anne’s lace was a commonly used plant in this time; its seeds were chewed, or it was brewed into a tea to prevent pregnancy. Again, there is limited but positive evidence that this could have been effective; in lab testing ingesting Queen Anne’s lace was effective in preventing pregnancies in rats.15

Not all the methods suggested in historic texts were effective, some were even very damaging. One unfortunately common method of birth control in this era was douching with oils, herbs and other chemicals.16 Given that douching alone is damaging, douching with chemicals was very dangerous. Chemical burns and infections were common with such methods. Despite this, they were widely used enough that Pope Sixtus V issued a Papal Bull in 1599 condemning the use of chemical douches.17 Again, this is another indication of just how desperate women were to control their fertility. Much later, in 1869, Pope Pius IX outlawed abortion for Catholics declaring that the human soul was present at conception.18 This was the first time an official body came out strongly against any form of birth control. Prior to this there was no advocacy nor discouragement towards birth control by governments or religious body. Before the involvement of official bodies, the only barrier to contraception was personal access. Women and men had vested interest in birth control methods, and still do. Ancients did not consider birth control a moral issue; it was a tool to control their fertility. It has only been fairly recently that negative attitudes about promiscuousness and moral downfall have been to birth control methods.

Current research shows that many of the methods used by ancient peoples were at least partially effect forms of contraception. The acacia gum used in Egypthas spermicidal properties, the pomegranate seeds contain compounds that prevent embryo implantation, and Queen Anne’s lace prevents fetal development. This knowledge has always been present in the primary documents but due to the tendency of scholars to write off ancient medical practices as superstition, it has not been explored until recently.

Perhaps more important than the effectiveness of birth control methods is their existence at all. Both men and women have always had a vested interest in birth control. Women face major risk to their lives during pregnancy. The birth process held a high likelihood of death, and the economic implications of being pregnant could include the inability to work and support one’s family.19 In agrarian societies where all members of the family were expected to contribute to the family’s livelihood having to care for an infant was very costly. All of this culminated in the wide-spread desire for and use of birth control Victoria Spencer throughout the ancient world. (she/her) Political Science major