The Freaky History of Your IUD, Revealed

(Photo: Reg Innell/Getty Images)

IUDs inspire almost evangelical enthusiasm, to which the Cut is not immune. But a fact that often gets left out has recently come to our attention.

“The whole concept of IUDs came about from the observation that if you put rocks inside the uterus of a camel, they wouldn’t get pregnant,” writes LadyBits founder Arikia Millikan for Motherboard, in a piece about the IUD’s bizarre history (which reads like a well-reported horror story).

Now we know.

By Molly Oswaks

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