So one of our readers asked us this question the other day, How did prostitutes in brothels non get pregnant during medieval times? Surely some medieval prostitutes, both those in brothels and those working on a temporary or contingency basis, did get pregnant. Nevertheless, medieval medical authorities held that prostitutes were infertile thanks to the extra dirt that built up in their wombs, which does suggest prostitutes developed rough methods of contraception.
We know some women specialized in providing abortifacient herbs. In one 16th century German case, a former prostitute, even, was known to supply other women with herbs to, in the circumlocution of the court records, restore their monthly menstruation. Ruth Mazo Karras, one of the most important scholars on prostitution in the Middle Ages, suggested one other option that subsequent scholars have generally agreed with.
John Rykener is a rare case of a cross-dressing man charged with prostitution. In his own court testimony, he reported that none of his male customers had any idea he was actually male. That suggests that prostitutes had some sway with their clients in offering non-vaginal sex for sale. Additionally, I need to mention one archaeological dig at Ashkelon in the Near East. This is a Roman bathhouse where the skeletons of many infants—born alive but dying shortly after birth—have been found in one of the drains.
Archaeologists have posited that this bathhouse was the site of prostitution if not an outright brothel, and the dead infants were the victims of necessary infanticide. The idea of contraception has existed probably ever since humans realized how babies were made. Some were related to superstition, such as the Greek gynecologist who recommended that women not wishing to have a child jump backwards seven times after having relations. These were likely less effective than other methods.
In BCE, a concoction of honey, ground dates, and acacia tree bark was probably fairly effective, since acacia ferments naturally into lactic acid, which disrupts pH balances. In eastern Canada, a certain aboriginal tribe believed that drinking a tea brewed with beaver testicles would prevent pregnancy. Men traditionally used some sort of sheath, dating back to BCE.
