When Women Used Lysol as Birth Control

[kpete]

When Women Used Lysol as Birth Control
A look back at shocking ads for the popular, dangerous, and ineffective antiseptic douche. —Nicole Pasulka

MORE:
http://motherjones.com/slideshows/2012/02/when-women-used-lysol-birth-control/lysol-douche-cobweb

[mysuzuki2]

1. Please forgive my ignorance since I lack a vagina but

wouldn't that hurt? I remember Lysol as pretty strong stuff. I can't imagine a Lysol douch would be very pleasant.

[cynatnite]

5. Women have been known to go to extreme measures...

to either not get pregnant or rid themselves of the pregnancy when they had no other options. Yes, it likely hurt and is dangerous.

Living in those days would have been frightening for a woman.

[annabanana]

21. Yes it was frightening.. but it was the norm

and seldom questioned.

[DesertRat]

7. Women used to squirt many kinds of fluids up their vaginas

for "cleaning" and to kill sperm. I'm sure it hurt. But women would do what they had to in those days.

And the GOP must realize...we're never going back.

[proudlibgal24]

2. Eww

I just have to say - ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...and ouuuuuuuuuuuch!!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. Pages with links to douche ads, including Lysol, at MUM.org.

The Museum of Menstruation, run by Harry Finley.

http://www.mum.org/zonite.htm

[MineralMan]

4. A relic from a time when women were supposed

to think their vaginas were shameful and full of poison, and needed regular disinfecting. Feh!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. They didn't know the diff between good germs and bad germs.

When you kill normal vaginal flora by taking antibiotics, yeast takes over and you get a yeast infection, which is no fun. They finally made anti-fungal medicine over the counter, which is good.

They didn't know about the good buggies, like the ones in buttermilk and yogurt.

[Aerows]

8. I'm so pissed about the war on women

that I can hardly reign in my inner "feminazi" to shout loud enough about it.

Here comes the Lysol, because women are stinky, but their husbands are pristine. Men need Viagra to get it up, but women are to blame for getting themselves pregnant.

[pkz]

9. My old Polish Catholic Nanny told me about BC methods

She lived to be 100 yrs. old and I was her designated driver. We had many talks over the years on the way to the dr. or dentist.
One of those talks I ask about her about birth control in the old days, I had already had my children, so I did not have to hear the "count the days" speel....but I ask her what she used. She told me that "it was the man's business" and if he did not handle it they used lysol.
I remembered helping her do laundry and I spilled straight lysol on my hands, I was very young and it burned my skin off. Just hearing her say that was what women used, made me cry...and I cried hard...so thankful that my generation had alternatives.

[Nye Bevan]

10. It looks like this was being pushed for "feminine hygiene", not birth control.

The ad seems to want to make women paranoid about not being fresh "down there". I believe that douches are still advertised today, despite not being medically advised.

[pkz]

11. no, the women knew how and when to use for birth control

[TalkingDog]

12. Yes, and pennyroyal tea was advertised in newspapers for "all suppressions and irregularities"

But women knew what that meant.

[Brickbat]

24. Yup, any time you see an ad for something that "regulates" periods or menstruation or "brings on" a

"late period," that means an abortion.

[jmowreader]

13. They couldn't push it for birth control

We're talking pre-Griswold v. Connecticut America, when women could legally be denied birth control. If they were selling it as either a contraceptive or an abortifacient, the Lysol company would have been raided and put out of business for selling illegal, unapproved drugs. Which would have been a shame, because Lysol is a good product for washing just about everything...well, everything but the inside of your uterus.

[Dokkie]

14. what ever happened to the good ole

condoms? I do miss those days. Cheap, very reliable and very simple to operate. Yes Limbaugh is an ass but college student should leave like college students i.e ramen noodles, buffets and condoms

[awoke_in_2003]

15. no form of birth control is 100% effective...

so it is good to use more than one form. Rubbers do break.

[Dokkie]

16. No shit

Ofc its not 100% effective but she is still in school when people are supposed to scrimp on needs. I bet she drives a crappy motor instead of a fuel efficient, 5 star safety rated vehicle too. All I am saying is that she should manage until she graduates from grad school were she is expected to make a boat load of money as a GTown law school graduate. Just hold on a bit mate, the promise land is near

[2labslib]

19. Condoms don't help with ovarian cysts.

Or the other issues discussed in her testimony. Her testimony was not about having sex.

[Dokkie]

23. I find it very hard to believe

most health insurance policies dont cover ovarian cysts. If that is really the case then lets stop framing the issue as giving women access to contraception and protection of womens reproductory rights.

This is another problem with insurance, most of the time we get to choose only from the ones provided by our employers or schools in this case seeing as insurance is tied to your job (because of the tax right off provided to those big institutions) making it virtually impossible to shop around. I personally think its more important to eliminated this problem before doing anything else about reforming US healthcare

[2labslib]

32. I find it very easy to believe that

Insurance companies do what they can to keep from paying. If you have read Fluke's testimony you would know that her friend could not prove her condition to the standards of the company and was denied coverage. Birth control is a big gray area and insurance companies take advantage of those.

I agree that we need to be able to choose our insurance. If we could, they wouldn't get away with the things they do.

[Dokkie]

34. So why dont we fix that 1st

instead of attacking the symptons, we can attack the disease directly. I am cant imagine how invasive these procedure to determine these vaginal problems would be so am not one to ask anyone to go through the probing diagnostic procedures. I dont knoow exactly where to go from here but providing free birth control would bring about a spike up in cost of BC that in a decade people would be wondering how any 99% could ever afford BC without the insurance companies paying for me.

[REP]

25. Wait - she should use less-effective birth control because she's a student ...

... and can afford an unwanted pregnancy? That's terrible logic there.

[Dokkie]

26. Yes, yes yes

That is what I have been trying to say. I ate ramen noodles and oat meals when I was in college amongst many cost saving measures. She could use condoms in the mean time while waiting for her big pay as a George town law graduate if shes trying to protect against a pregnancy.

Also where is the boyfriend or partner in this picture. Why should she bear the whole cost of pregnancy protection when both own responsibility of any potential baby?. I know if my girl friend asked for help paying for contraception, it going to be an automatic yes no question asked

[REP]

27. Penny wise and pound foolish

Stupid to scrimp on birth control when broke. Dealing with an unwanted pregnancy is a great deal more expensive than the cost of birth control pills + condoms. Ramen and oatmeal is not an ideal prenatal diet, should she want to carry to term; terminating a pregnancy is not free of charge and many insurance plans won't cover it.

You do whatever you need to so as to avoid getting pregnant. It's a bit different for women; pregnancy actually occurs in their bodies.

[Dokkie]

28. Wrong

Not in this case, condoms are just as effective as any birth control she might be using. The only problem with it is that it reduces sensation for the guy making it harder to "you know". But forget about all that, lets take your advice and buy the top, luxury items of every thing we use. Buy the Chevy Volt instead of the ford focus, buy steak instead of ground beef and live life to the max or else we would be penny wise pound foolish.

Ramen and oatmeal wasnt the best diet for anyone but it was what I needed to survive at the time with limited help from parents and no papers to work. What would life be without any taking any chances?I really dont wanna know

[REP]

30. Your facts are in serious, laughable error

Failure rate of the birth control pill: typical use 8% perfect use 0.3%

Failure rate of latex condoms: typical use 15% perfect use 2%

That's not "just as effective" by a long chalk. Then again, eating crap food isn't the same as an unwanted pregnancy, is it.

[Dokkie]

33. 98% backed up with

morning after pills should be good enough for anybody. Especially one who is in college and struggling financially.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. Boardwalk Empire showed this in an episode

Showed the bottle and also a douche bag in the bathroom. Below the "how to" book from the ep:



From this:



The booklet is available from Gutenberg.org and is in the public domain:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31790/31790-h/31790-h.htm

This is what the rethugs want to go back to.

[LiberalFighter]

18. Put a bottle of the stuff on the desks of all the legislators across the country

that support controlling a woman's body. Make damn sure that any that are women fully understand the history.

[liberalhistorian]

22. Ya know, that's a good idea!

Maybe we should all send bottles to the legislators responsible for this shit and who keep pushing it, along with an explanation of it. Bury their offices with it.

[co-creation]

20. What is the effectiveness rate?

[nolabear]

29. You might also want to know the death and sterility rates.

It's LYSOL.

[REP]

31. The Lysol was diluted with water by the woman before douching

Douching is an extremely ineffective birth control method, but women will use almost anything to control their fertility when their options are limited (there is a great rant about that in the movie How to Get Ahead in Advertising). I don't believe using diluted Lysol was deadly - I haven't found any data to back that up - but abortion techniques of the time, often clandestine, often were. And of course douching with anything, let alone Lysol, is not going to make for great personal comfort.