Dear Dr. Love: I have enjoyed reading your answers over the last few months, and I have learned a lot. I decided that it was time to ask a question of my own. It may seem stupid and trivial, but I need to know. I have heard that a shaken up Coke or 7-Up or other soda can be used as a contraceptive douche. Is this true?
All joking aside. The answer is no. In fact, douching with carbonated liquids can actually kill you. This is because the bubbles in the beverage can enter the bloodstream and cause an embolism, which is an air bubble in a blood vessel. Even though soft drinks have been shown to kill sperm in laboratory test tubes, they don’t kill sperm in the vagina because the sperm move so quickly that, by the time you introduce any douche into the vagina, the sperm have already found their way into the cervix. And, once the sperm have cleared the cervix, they can’t be reached by douches. So, my advice to you, find a more reliable and less deadly form of birth control.
