What fertility aids existed in the medieval era?
John of Gaddesden, a physician who compiled a book of medicines in the early 14th century, suggested many ways to improve fertility and treat fertility problems. Some were plantbased medicines made from ingredients such as mandrake, mugwort and catnip. Other medicines were made from animals’ reproductive organs, because it was thought these could stimulate a person’s reproductive system.
For example John recommended a hare’s womb, dried and powdered: the woman could drink it in wine before taking a bath, or the man and woman could eat the powder. John also listed tests to show whether the man or woman in a couple was infertile. Each person’s urine should be put into a pot with grains of wheat and left for a week. If the grains in one pot didn’t sprout, then, he said, that person was infertile.
Finally John gave advice on sexual techniques, because medieval physicians believed that women were more likely to conceive if they, as well as their partners, enjoyed sex.
All these tests and treatments were accepted parts of medicine, backed by theories about how the body worked.
However, as well as turning to physicians, medieval people also prayed and made pilgrimages to saints’ shrines. The shrine of St Thomas Cantilupe in Hereford recorded that in 1296 St Thomas helped an infertile woman conceive twins. Nonetheless there was no guarantee these fertility aids would work: John of Gaddesden also warned his readers that curing infertility was sometimes “very difficult and rare”.
Catherine Rider, associate professor in medieval history at the University of Exeter