When Women Used Lysol as Birth Control

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The current attack on access to birth control had us thinking back to the first half of the 20th century, when contraceptive methods taken for granted today, like condoms and diaphragms, were expensive, hard to find, and often required a potentially humiliating exam by a disapproving doctor.

Of course, women who couldn't afford or gain access to medically administered birth control had to come up with their own strategies for staying baby free. Douching was cheap, accessible, and widely advertised as a feminine hygiene product; however, as Andrea Tone writes in the book Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America, it was also the most common form of birth control from 1940 until 1960—when the oral contraceptive pill arrived on the market.

The most popular brand of douche was Lysol—an antiseptic soap whose pre-1953 formula contained cresol, a phenol compound reported in some cases to cause inflammation, burning, and even death. By 1911 doctors had recorded 193 Lysol poisonings and five deaths from uterine irrigation. Despite reports to the contrary, Lysol was aggressively marketed to women as safe and gentle. Once cresol was replaced with ortho-hydroxydiphenyl in the formula, Lysol was pushed as a germicide good for cleaning toilet bowls and treating ringworm, and Lehn & Fink's, the company that made the disinfectant, continued to market it as safeguard for women's "dainty feminine allure."

Douching may have been cheaper than condoms or diaphragms and available over the counter in most drugstores, but it didn't work. In a 1933 study, Tone writes, nearly half of the 507 women who used douching as a birth control method ended up pregnant.

But if false advertising with highly suspect results weren't bad enough, the ads promoted a level of misogyny and female insecurity both laughable and frightening by today's standards. Images of wives locked out their homes or trapped by cobwebs are surrounded by text asserting a woman should "question herself" if her husband's interest seemed to have faded. If her husband is treating her badly, the message was, "she was really the one to blame."

These ads and the product they're hawking are a chilling reminder of a time when most women had limited access to birth control or reliable medical knowledge about contraception. Corporate muscle moved into the void to advertise Lysol as contraception under the widely recognized euphemism of "feminine hygiene," and as Tone writes, "the strategy won sales by jeopardizing women's health."

http://motherjones.c...l-douche-cobweb

[Danno 1,228]

The current sets-off-firestorm"]attack on access to birth control had us thinking back to the first half of the 20th century, when contraceptive methods taken for granted today, like condoms and diaphragms, were expensive, hard to find, and often required a potentially humiliating exam by a disapproving doctor.

Of course, women who couldn't afford or gain access to medically administered birth control had to come up with their own strategies for staying baby free. Douching was cheap, accessible, and widely advertised as a feminine hygiene product; however, as Andrea Tone writes in the book Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America, it was also the most common form of birth control from 1940 until 1960—when the oral contraceptive pill arrived on the market.

The most popular brand of douche was Lysol—an antiseptic soap whose pre-1953 formula contained cresol, a phenol compound reported in some cases to cause inflammation, burning, and even death. By 1911 doctors had recorded 193 Lysol poisonings and five deaths from uterine irrigation. Despite reports to the contrary, Lysol was aggressively marketed to women as safe and gentle. Once cresol was replaced with ortho-hydroxydiphenyl in the formula, Lysol was pushed as a germicide good for cleaning toilet bowls and treating ringworm, and Lehn & Fink's, the company that made the disinfectant, continued to market it as safeguard for women's "dainty feminine allure."

Douching may have been cheaper than condoms or diaphragms and available over the counter in most drugstores, but it didn't work. In a 1933 study, Tone writes, nearly half of the 507 women who used douching as a birth control method ended up pregnant.

But if false advertising with highly suspect results weren't bad enough, the ads promoted a level of misogyny and female insecurity both laughable and frightening by today's standards. Images of wives locked out their homes or trapped by cobwebs are surrounded by text asserting a woman should "question herself" if her husband's interest seemed to have faded. If her husband is treating her badly, the message was, "she was really the one to blame."

These ads and the product they're hawking are a chilling reminder of a time when most women had limited access to birth control or reliable medical knowledge about contraception. Corporate muscle moved into the void to advertise Lysol as contraception under the widely recognized euphemism of "feminine hygiene," and as Tone writes, "the strategy won sales by jeopardizing women's health."

http://motherjones.c...l-douche-cobweb

Huge fail right out of the blocks but this is what we get from Mother Jones.com.

Birth control is cheap, it is more readily available than are oil filters for my car (and cheaper too).

In fact we give Planned Parenthood Millions in grants just in case there is some person who has time for sex but not time to earn 10 bucks a month to by BC pills.

Sorry, I hated to do it but that was like a softball lobbed underhand to me.

[james&olya 1,121]

Huge fail right out of the blocks but this is what we get from Mother Jones.com.

Birth control is cheap, it is more readily available than are oil filters for my car (and cheaper too).

In fact we give Planned Parenthood Millions in grants just in case there is some person who has time for sex but not time to earn 10 bucks a month to by BC pills.

Sorry, I hated to do it but that was like a softball lobbed underhand to me.

Swing and a miss!!

You miss the point! The issue is the willingness and desire by some in your party to roll back the clock on not just the availability and affordability of contraception for women, but even the right to USE it!! The catholic church seems to take a position that birth control is almost the same as abortion and should not be legal! Look at Santorum's positions on this.

I think using an oil filter is not a good idea for birth control. It might work if used in certain ways but...

Swing and a miss!!

You miss the point! The issue is the willingness and desire by some in your party to roll back the clock on not just the availability and affordability of contraception for women, but even the right to USE it!! The catholic church seems to take a position that birth control is almost the same as abortion and should not be legal! Look at Santorum's positions on this.

I think using an oil filter is not a good idea for birth control. It might work if used in certain ways but...

Help!! How did this go red? It must be that creeping red menace! It got Danno, it can get anyone!

[spookyturtle 9,466]

I think there are some VJ'ers who are products of using Lysol as birth control.

[james&olya 1,121]

You have gone red also!!

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

The basic pill costs about 70 dollars for 3 months without subsidies FYI. I take them everyday to keep in touch with my feminine side.

Loving the red! It must be the pill talking.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Sousuke

[Love's JAA 100]

Huge fail right out of the blocks but this is what we get from Mother Jones.com.

Birth control is cheap, it is more readily available than are oil filters for my car (and cheaper too).

In fact we give Planned Parenthood Millions in grants just in case there is some person who has time for sex but not time to earn 10 bucks a month to by BC pills.

Sorry, I hated to do it but that was like a softball lobbed underhand to me.

Looks like you had your period in your reply. I guess the birth control works for you.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Huge fail right out of the blocks but this is what we get from Mother Jones.com.

Birth control is cheap, it is more readily available than are oil filters for my car (and cheaper too).

In fact we give Planned Parenthood Millions in grants just in case there is some person who has time for sex but not time to earn 10 bucks a month to by BC pills.

Sorry, I hated to do it but that was like a softball lobbed underhand to me.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

There has been no attack on the access of birth control. It is more accessible than ever. I bet the woman in this ad paid for her own Lysol.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

I think there are some VJ'ers who are products of using Lysol as birth control.

But mostly as mouthwash.

[Danno 1,228]

Swing and a miss!!

You miss the point! The issue is the willingness and desire by some in your party to roll back the clock on not just the availability and affordability of contraception for women, but even the right to USE it!! The catholic church seems to take a position that birth control is almost the same as abortion and should not be legal! Look at Santorum's positions on this.

I think using an oil filter is not a good idea for birth control. It might work if used in certain ways but...

Help!! How did this go red? It must be that creeping red menace! It got Danno, it can get anyone!

Educate me my friend, where and who is trying to stop others from buying Birth control, I'm really not aware of any such legislation being proposed.

The simple moral teaching by a church to abstain from "artificial" birth control is completely different than the Church pushing for society at large from being free to purchase the product.

One of the interesting parts of the whole Artificial birth control topic is how disappointing it has been when you compare it to the rosey promises which were offered when it became available (legal) on the open market. The arguments were logical and convincing yet I can't think of one area where it delivered.

We have more unplanned, unwanted Children born than we had before the availability.

We have more abortions. (It's become big-business)

The orphan populations was expected to dry to a trickle.

Family size went from an average of like 4-5 kids to a negative replacement level all across the Western world, so much so that a number of nations will be nearly extinct within a few decades. Their fertility levels are so low experts claim recovery is extremely doubtful.

I'll go out on a limb here and make a prediction, one I have not heard anyone else make. And don't forget where you heard it from first when you see it happening.

In some European countries, facing extinction (all of them).....Abortion then Artificial birth control will be restricted to woman who already have x number of kids. The urgency of self preservation will far outweigh individual rights when nations watch their neighbors collapse or become over run.

We see these winds of change already happening in even the most liberal countries of Europe concerning Immigration.

THE USA has always been a stand alone country with a much greater emphasis on personal freedom, especially in the last 50-75 years. Because we will have a sustainable birthrate thanks to our friends from the South immigrating here (one way or another),

I don't make this prediction concerning the USA.

I find it hard to believe every country in Europe is just going to wither and be overtaken by others.

If you look at the numbers, in a few decades even Russia will not be able to man a suitable military force to repell Chinas advance, they will certainly loose a portion of their country to China .....And what is the reason? LOw fertility rates.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

The basic pill costs about 70 dollars for 3 months without subsidies FYI. I take them everyday to keep in touch with my feminine side.

Loving the red! It must be the pill talking.

How do you explain wearing panties and a bra?

[Neonred 3,647]

I think there are some VJ'ers who are products of using Lysol as birth control.

Yes, and you can pick them out easily since they have three arms and talk kind of funny.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

If birth control is so cheap no problem for health insurance to cover it then.

Oh yeah, and women pay for their health insurance through premiums and part of overall compensation for their employment. Why do outsiders think they can dictate what should and shouldn't be covered?

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

If birth control is so cheap no problem for health insurance to cover it then.

Oh yeah, and women pay for their health insurance through premiums and part of overall compensation for their employment. Why do outsiders think they can dictate what should and shouldn't be covered?

I wonder if vasectomies and the cost of condoms are also covered.