While listening to
the CBC radio program “Under the Influence” on satellite radio the other day, I
was astonished to learn something I never knew about the common household
product, Lysol: in the late 1920s it was marketed as a feminine hygiene
product! The disinfectant was promoted
as a vaginal douche to kill intimate germs and odors and safeguard “dainty
feminine allure.” Its active ingredient,
benzalkonium chloride, is classed as
a Category III antiseptic by the FDA and is a known irritant. The formula was
even more concentrated back in the ‘20s than it is today, resulting in women
becoming poisoned, experiencing severe burns and some even dying.
It turns out, however, that Lysol ads were not even really
about cleanliness; rather “feminine hygiene” was a euphemism for birth
control. At the time, using birth
control or even talking about it was taboo. According to the CBC program, this
fueled sales of “under the counter” spermicides like Lysol. In fact, Lysol became the best selling method
of contraception during the Great Depression.
Fortunately, times have changed and so has knowledge and
discourse about contraception. Women
today have many more birth control options as well as safer real feminine
hygiene products – and that’s the poise that modern medical knowledge gives!
Judith Wolf, MD Associate Director, WHEP
