Coca-Cola Spermicide

Contrary to popular belief, birth control has a long and fascinating history. To prevent sperm from entering the cervix, the Ancient Egyptians would construct a pessary, which you could compare to a modern diaphragm. Their version, however, was created using materials like crocodile feces.

The history of birth control attempts is one of the most fascinating facets of the history of birth control. Over the years, people have done all kinds of weird and outrageous things, and one of the most notorious of these became an urban legend. Women began using Coca-Cola as a spermicide in the 1950s.

The plot is as straightforward as it is strange. A woman would simply grab a bottle of Coca-Cola and clean herself out since she didn't want to become pregnant after having sex. The theory was that any sperm would be killed by the acid in the Coke. The narrative has been around for a while, and it frequently travels in the well-known "friend of a friend" manner. And without medical knowledge, it would be difficult to demonstrate that it is true.

A Harvard researcher first learned of the purported approach in the 1980s, which is when investigation into the theory originally started. In fact, there is a song from the 1960s about it, according to one of her medical students who claimed that Puerto Rican students at her school had done it.

A series of experiments showed that Diet Coke was a more effective spermicide than New Coke, but that no Coke would probably be a decent spermicide at all given the process of impregnation and the reality that you could never get the beverage deep enough or quickly enough. However, the urban legend only states that people tried it and that much appears to be genuine, not necessarily that it works.