Birth control is often a tricky thing to get right. While the pill works like a dream for some women, it wreaks havoc on others' hormones; the copper IUD sidesteps the hormone issue, but women with already-heavy periods who opt for one may find themselves faced with a crampy bloodbath for five days each month — and so on and so forth.
When we reflect on the history of contraceptives, though, we start to appreciate these modern-day conundrums. "In every era, women have wanted to decide if and when they have children," the above video from global women's health organization Engender begins. It then takes the viewer through some of history's all-time worst birth control methods. Thankfully, we no longer insert crocodile dung mixed with honey into our vaginas before sex — a technique women in ancient Egypt used, believing the concoction to be a spermicide. And, how lucky are we to avoid wearing weasel testicles during sex, as people in Europe did in the Middle Ages, to ward off pregnancy? (This method has since been proven to do nothing but ruin the moment.) And, we'll never feel compelled to rinse sperm out of our vaginas with, of all things, Coca-Cola — a practice employed by American women as late as the 1960s.
Many of these methods are hilarious — but the inability of billions of women throughout history to take charge of their sexual and reproductive health is anything but funny. And, says Engender, that unfortunate story is still unfolding. Today, 220 million women globally need family planning and birth control, but can't access them. In this way, we're still in the Dark Ages. Watch the video above for a message that is at once comical and poignant, and find out more about Engender's "WTFP?!" ("Where's The Family Planning?!") campaign on their website .