ABSTRACT
Birth control is a very complicated issue: it has biological aspects and socio-cultural ramifications, and articulates anatomy and physiology, psychology and sexual desire, culture, religion, law, economy and politics. On the other hand, the fundamental problem of birth control can be presented as a simple one: how to prevent a fertilising encounter between a sperm and an egg. Before the advent of hormonal contraception, this could be done through the use of mechanical devices that prevented contact between sperm and egg, such as a diaphragm, cervical cap or condom; through the use of chemical substances which, when placed in the vagina, inactivated sperm cells; or through a combination of these two approaches. Contraceptive preparations dwelled for a long time on the boundary between official and quack medicine. They suffered from a double opprobrium: religious and cultural resistance to birth control, and the proximity between contraception and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. So-called ‘female hygiene’ products – frequently a code name for substances designed to prevent conception or produce abortion – were sold in pharmacies alongside condoms as protection against venereal infections, and were therefore associated with an amoral life. Links with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) facilitated the diffusion of contraceptives, but at the same time, strengthened their marginal status (Woycke 1988; McLaren 1990; Brodie 1994; Tone 2001).
