Kahoun Papyrus discovered by a scientist named Sir Flinder Petrie in 1898, Smith Papyrus discovered in 1862 and Ebers Papyrus discovered in 1873; It contained various information about pregnancy, pregnancy tests, varicose veins and urinary tract diseases in ancient Egypt.
According to the information obtained from these papyri, a woman who suspected that she was pregnant was irrigating two bags, one full of wheat and the other barley, with her urine every morning. Another woman who was not pregnant was using the same method. Thus, after this procedure, if the bags irrigated by the woman who suspects that she is pregnant, germinate earlier than the other woman, it becomes certain that the woman who suspects that she is pregnant is pregnant.
Now hold tight, if the wheat and barley bags that both women watered at the same time germinate, it would be clear that there was no pregnancy.
In fact, the logic in this application; revealing that the bags of barley and wheat turn green more quickly than the urine of non-pregnant women because there are too many hormones in the morning urine of pregnant women. If you’re ready, let’s move on to other, more interesting details about birth control methods in Ancient Egypt.
With this method used in ancient Egypt, the sex of the baby could even be determined beforehand. If the seeds in the bags in which the pregnant woman urinated and the bag containing the wheat germinated earlier, the baby’s gender was considered male, and if the barley sprouted first, the baby’s gender was considered to be female. Even the accuracy of this method, Prof. Dr. It was tested and approved in a laboratory environment by Julias Manger in 1933. prof. Dr. Hulusi Köker also accepts the scientific accuracy of this method, which was applied in Ancient Egypt, and says that it is still effective in determining the sex of babies.
When we look at it, we see that the pregnancy tests used today are designed to determine the hormone concentration in the woman’s urine. In other words, you can understand that the method in Ancient Egypt was applied in a more modern way in today’s conditions.
What about birth control methods that will leave your mouth open when you hear about it?
In ancient Egypt, women inserted garlic and onions into the uterus (cervix) before going to sleep at night to determine if they were infertile. When women woke up in the morning after this procedure, if they smelled garlic or onions in their nasal passages, they would know that they might be pregnant. However, if there was no smell in the nasal passages, it was understood that women could not get pregnant because their tubes (pregnancy tubes for women) were closed.
In another method, pregnancy was prevented by placing gold and silver rings made of non-rusting metals inside the wombs of women. Records from 1850 show that a mixture of honey, acacia berry and acacia leaf was used as another form of contraception in ancient Egypt. This mixture was prepared to be a complete spermicide, dipped in a cotton or lint (a material made of wool) and inserted into the vagina before sex.
Another surprising method of contraception used by the ancient Egyptians was to rub a mixture of crocodile manure into the vagina. Let’s not forget that animal excrement has been used for birth control in Eastern civilizations throughout history. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that elephant manure is not used to prevent pregnancy in India and the Middle East.
Let us give you another surprising fact: According to rumors, Cleopatra (69-30 BC) was the first person to use the vibrator.
Cleopatra is thought to have satisfied herself with the vibration created by hollowing out a pumpkin and filling it with bees. Isn’t it interesting?
Sources: The Maudern, Archeology and Art Publications, Health Insights
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