While birth control is considered a modern phenomenon people have been using contraception in one form or another for thousands of years.

There are records of 4,000 years ago in ancient Egypt, where women regularly inserted vaginal suppositories made of crocodile dung and a mixture of honey and gum before sex. It isn't as bad as it sounds, the dung actually acted as a spermicidal agent.

The ancient Greeks used the rhythm method, which involved abstaining during a woman's fertile period. Greek gynaecologist Soranus had figured out that women were fertile when they ovulated. Unfortunately, he made the mistake of thinking that ovulation coincided with menstruation. Even today, the rhythm method is still practiced. Although now it is a well known fact that ovulation usually occurs between the 12th and 14th day of a 28-day cycle. But it is just as tough to predict the exact moment, so the rhythm method is not really considered too efficient.

Women of ancient times experimented with other contraceptive methods too, including sneezing to expel semen, drinking cold water and even avoiding orgasm. Although none of them were effective, but even today, they all persist as myths.

In the 1600s, douches became popular among French prostitutes. Most didn't work. However, once women figured out that acidity of a lemon killed sperm, the use of lemon juice became very popular! It was widely used in many cultures. Some women in the 1700s even used a half-squeezed lemon as a diaphragm!

The condom was invented in 1504 by the Italian anatomist Fallopius, who made his out of linen. It gained popularity in the late 1700s as it was reputed to be widely used by the legendary lover Casanova. In the mid-1800s, Charles Goodyear developed the first rubber condom, and the 1930s saw the arrival of the latex condom.

By the turn of the twentieth century, the female condom and the diaphragm had been developed. In 1920, a German gynecologist Ernst Grafenberg invented an IUD using gut and silver wire. A polyethylene IUD was developed in the 1960s, but meant only for women who had already given birth before. Polyethylene was replaced by copper in the 1970s.

During the 1950s, scientists developed synthetic hormones that stopped ovulation and, by 1960, the birth control pill was available in the market. Those same hormones were later used in injections. By the 1970s, contraceptive hormonal injections were available in 50 nations, although they didn't appear in the U.S. until 1972.

A number of recent innovations, like the vaginal ring (providing month-long protection against pregnancy) have added to easier contraceptive methods currently available to women. We don't have to use crocodile dung anymore but like our ancestors, we too are constantly looking for safer, more efficient birth control methods.

Also Check out: Performance Enhancers