Although no method of contraception can ever guarantee 100% protection, some women believe that certain homemade methods of contraception are effective ways to avoid pregnancy.
These forms of homemade contraception include household substances such as honey, baking soda, aloe vera, lemon juice and soft drinks. While some believe that these methods might work as spermicides, its best to use a commercial spermicide to be sure. Birth control is just not something to mess with!
Do-it-yourself recipe
One of the most popular homemade spermicide recipes involves aloe vera gel and lemon juice. To make it, combine 1 tablespoon of aloe vera gel with 3 drops of lemon juice. You can keep this mixture refrigerated for up to 72 hours. Although this recipe is often used, it has never been clinically tested and should not be considered a full proof form of birth control.
Soft drinks as post-coital douches
Another popular homemade spermicide method that is often referred to involves Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola has been considered a wonder cure for everything from colic to hiccups, to relieving jelly fish stings. Because of all of its other supposed capabilities, people began to believe in its effectiveness as a contraceptive method. During the 1960s, Americans used Coca-Cola as an after-sex spermicide with worrying frequency and many women in third world countries still use Coca-Cola as an after-sex douche today.
A Harvard research team found that Coca-Cola was only able to immobilize 30 percent of ejaculated sperm within an hour after intercourse. What was even more alarming is that they found that Coca-Cola douches actually increase the forward velocity of healthy sperm by almost 18 cm/hour and therefore increase the chances of pregnancy!
Another soft drink called Krest Bitter Lemon was studied to gauge its effectiveness as a method of birth control when used as a post-coital douche. The authors of that study stated that it was unlikely to be effective because sperm leaves the ejaculate within 1.5 minutes of deposition, therefore the sperm cannot be reached by the douche.
Family planning consultants never recommend using soft drinks in order to prevent pregnancy and state that their effectiveness is only minimal to non-existent as forms of contraception.
Note: The above references are purely anecdotal. We don't recommend the use of homemade spermicides as contraceptive methods and think only proven methods should be considered effective.
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