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.
