Q 01/05

Which disinfectant, hinted in 1930s ads to prevent pregnancy, was once America's leading douche?

A) Clorox

B) Lysol

C) Pine-Sol

D) Dettol

Answer · why

B) Lysol

Lysol stayed a popular birth control method from the Great Depression through the 1960s, though it never worked. Douching with it does not prevent pre...

Q 02/05

Egypt's Kahun Papyrus, from about 1850 BC, describes a contraceptive pessary of which animal's dung?

A) Donkey

B) Hippopotamus

C) Crocodile

D) Jackal

Answer · why

C) Crocodile

Crocodile dung is among the oldest written contraceptive recipes, listed beside a honey mixture and gummy pastes meant to cover the 'mouth of the womb...

Q 03/05

A 2008 Ig Nobel Prize honoured rival studies finding which soft drink both is and is not a spermicide?

A) Coca-Cola

B) Dr Pepper

C) Mountain Dew

D) Sprite

Answer · why

A) Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola split the joke prize between one team that reported it was an effective spermicide and another that proved it was not. Sperm swim out of rea...

Q 04/05

Chemist Russell Marker made the progesterone behind the first birth control pills from which Mexican plant?

A) Agave

B) Maize

C) Cacao

D) Yam

Answer · why

D) Yam

Yam species contain diosgenin, which Marker turned into progesterone in a process named Marker degradation. It founded a whole steroid industry in Mex...

Q 05/05

Which country singer's 1975 single 'The Pill' was refused airplay by a number of radio stations?

A) Dolly Parton

B) Tammy Wynette

C) Loretta Lynn

D) Tanya Tucker

Answer · why

C) Loretta Lynn

Loretta Lynn recorded the song in 1972, but her label held it back for three years. Rural doctors later told her it had done more to spread word of bi...