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A pessary is a vaginal suppository used to kill sperm and/or block their passage through the cervix. It’s one of the oldest contraceptive devices, having been used for over 3,000 years in various cultures.

Ancient pessaries were often made from  animal feces (crocodile in Egypt, elephant in India), along with a honey, ground up fruit and bark. Once inserted, the pessary would melt at body temperature and form an impenetrable covering on the cervix.

Variations included bowl-shaped fruit rinds that served as a cervical cap, a six-sided “block pessary” with concave sides to cover the cervix, a wishbone “stem pessary” (see above, bottom right) with two prongs brought together for insertion into the cervix and then released to protrude inside the uterus, and cervical plugs made of natural sea sponges, pads of cotton or wool, tree sap or even lumps of opium.