Camel Contraception

To prevent their female camels from becoming pregnant during long marches on desert caravans, Bedouins are said to have put stones into their uterus. Doing so causes slight irritation and prevents a fertilised egg from attaching to the womb’s mucous lining.

In medical terms, this is not so unrealistic, as contraceptive coils work in a similar way. It was observed that a polyp or another aberrance in the uterus prevents the attachment of a fertilised egg cell.

It is extremely unlikely that this type of contraception was ever employed with camels. When Arab gynaecologists hear this story at European conferences, they normally respond with a simple, short question: “Have you ever tried to put a stone in a camel’s uterus?”

In other words, it seems that what we believe is not in line with the reality.