Coca-Cola douches and contraception

doi:10.1136/bmj.a2873

Published 17 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2873
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2873

Feature

Christmas 2008: Food and Drink

Coca-Cola douches and contraception

Deborah J Anderson, professor of obstetrics/gynaecology and microbiology, lecturer in medicine¹^,2

¹ Boston University School of Medicine, 670 Albany St, Suite 516, Boston, MA 02118, USA, ² Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA

Deborah.Anderson@BMC.org

Deborah Anderson explains why women really shouldn’t relyon Coca-Cola for family planning

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Coca-Cola douches were a part of folklore about birth controlduring the 1950s and 1960s, before effective contraceptive methodswere readily available.¹ It was rumoured that the acidity ofCoca-Cola killed sperm, and the classic coke bottle provideda convenient "shake and shoot" applicator. Recently, an oldstudy from our group confirming the spermicidal effects of variousCoca-Cola formulations² was awarded the 2008 IgNobel prize inchemistry.³ The press releases surrounding our IgNobel awardmight have repopularised this method, and soft drink douchesare apparently still used to prevent pregnancy in resource-poorsettings.⁴ There are, however, many reason why women shouldnot rely on this method.

In our study we mixed Coca-Cola with human semen (5:1 ratio)and reported that sperm were immobilised within one minute.A subsequent toxicology study found that Coca-Cola has onlya weak spermicidal effect.⁵

Data from computerised analysis of semen indicate that the forwardvelocity . . . [Full text of this article]

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