Pessaries
“Pessary” is one of those vocabulary words that I have been aware of since I was a kid. I’d see it in old books or older magazines, and somehow I gained the vague sense that it had something to do with, uh, “feminine hygiene”. Which meant, I really didn’t want to know.
Well, here’s a picture:
According to Accoucheur’s Antique Midwifery Fact Files (link via Bondage Blog, which in itself should tell you something):
Intrauterine Wishbones & Stem Plugs
It was illegal to sell or promote any form of contraceptives during early 1900s. These birth control devices were sold and advertised as pessaries. They were place in the cervix with the stem inside the uterine cavity. These pessaries were the forerunners of the modern day IUDs.
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Owie. I vividly recall how much it hurt to have my modern IUDs installed. It makes me clench up to think of those springy things invading my cervix.
:)
The one in the middle reminds me of a screw I used to put the front back on a drawer…
…Ow.
And not a good “ow”, either. The bad kind.
They look like someone tied a button to a screw. Owowowowowowow.
(though the one on the bottom left looks like a buttplug, miniaturized. Like it would be used by people who reeeeaally love their American Girl dolls)
Well, since you bring it up, this reminds me of a class I took as a young engineer. History of Technology through NC State, as it turned out.
My professor had a SEVERE fondness for obstetrics of the ancients, so he would do everything in his power to let us know of all the uses for pomegranates, tools that would make grand inquisitor Torquemada poo himself, and probably his favorite prophylactic of all, the Alligator Dung Pessary. He mentioned that for about three consecutive lectures at how great these were supposed to work based off of the papyrus records of the time, and not once~ not ONCE, I say~ did he hazard to guess that the reason that it may have worked so bloody well is that croc poo in the puss is an A#1 mood killer.
We were all waiting for the punchline to it, but it never came. Much like the folks in Ancient Egypt, I’ll bank.
Thanks for bringing up this memory I’d long hoped I’d repressed.
:-D
Interesting. I’m used to a pessary being used to hold the uterus in place in older women with prolapse. They look much different than this, though.
Great post.
Ann, from the quick Google I did before making this post, the meaning you are used to was the traditional one. But the definition of pessary was broad enough to include these devices also, allowing them to be marketed under that name, and I suspect there may have been some linguistic drift in the meaning after decades of “delicate” marketing use.
I’m in the medical profession, so the medical application was what I was familiar with, (especially in older women). But looking at these, I understand the *other* use of these devices.
Wow, did you hear that? It was my cervix screaming.
LOL at A, for sure.
Was going to mention the dung pessaries of olden time. The first time I heard the term was in a book, I believe. Not that long ago, actually. I had to look it up, I admit.
I too have a modern day IUD and the pain was something of a blinding white light. I cant even imagine what this mustve been like.