Contraception

A UK survey has revealed that myths about contraception may be widespread. The survey questioned 1,000 women aged 18 to 50 and was carried out by market research company Opinion Health, sponsored by Bayer Schering Pharma.

Twenty percent of women said they had heard of kitchen items, including bread, cling film, and even chicken skin, being used as alternative barrier methods. Others had heard food items such as kebabs, Coke, chocolate, or chips could be used as oral contraceptives.

Some even think that the pill offers protection from HIV. Ten percent of the women questioned believed that it always takes a number of years to regain fertility after discontinuation of the pill.

Contraceptive myths have been around for thousands of years and ancient methods have varied from crocodile dung and honey before sex, to sea sponges and beeswax after. There is the strange one that used alcohol made from stewed beaver's testicles.

It seems that a variety of unsafe and unproven methods might still exist in modern Britain and Britain continues to have the highest unintended pregnancy rate in Europe. There were no figures about average education level of these women.