Dark History - 177: They Used Nun Urine For What?! The Dark History of Getting Pregnant

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

Hi friends, happy Wednesday!  One of my friends is having a baby, so we’ve been talking about baby stuff a lot. And of course… my stupid phone is listening. So now my TikTok feed is filled with all these freaking baby videos.  Usually I just scroll past it, but the other day… one of them caught my eye. It was a viral video all about how this girl got pregnant because she took Mucinex. You know, the medicine for chest congestion? I know… so random. I thought this was a fake video but as I did more research, turns out *thousands* of people have tried this, and tons of them swear by it. But here’s the thing: this is nothing new. Since the dawn of time, humans have been trying desperately to multiply. People have been drinking strange potions, and performing controversial rituals, and even worshipping a metal penis for *centuries*. When it comes to making babies, people will try anything. So today, we’re diving into the weird, wild, and sometimes terrifying Dark history of fertility.  I appreciate you for coming by, and tune in next week for more Dark History. I sometimes talk about my Good Reads in the show. So here's the link if you want to check it out. IDK. lol: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/139701263-bailey ________ FOLLOW ME AROUND Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail] Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Business Related Mail: Bailey Sarian 4400 W. Riverside Dr., Ste 110-300 Burbank, CA 91505 ________ This podcast is Executive Produced by: Bailey Sarian & Kevin Grosch and Joey Scavuzzo from Made In Network Head Writer: Allyson Philobos Writer: Katie Burris Research provided by: Emma Lehman Special thank you to our Historical Consultant: Dr. Mary Fissell, PhD, J. Mario Molina Professor of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, and author of 'Pushback: the 2500 Year Fight to Thwart Women by Restricting Abortion' Director: Brian Jaggers Additional Editing: Julien Perez and Maria Norris Post Supervisor: Kelly Hardin  Production Management: Ross Woodruff Hair: Angel Gonzalez Makeup: Bailey Sarian ________ And right now, OpenPhone is offering my listeners 20% off of your first 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/darkhistory. And if you have existing numbers with another service, OpenPhone will port them over at no extra charge. OpenPhone: no missed calls, no missed customers. So stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to https://www.zocdoc.com/DARKHISTORY to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.  Shop my favorite bras and underwear at https://www.skims.com. And after you place your order, be sure to let them know I sent you! Select "podcast" in the survey and choose my show from the dropdown menu that follows. Trust me, your boobs and your butt will thank you. So get started today at https://www.stitchfix.com/darkhistory to get $20 off your first order—and they’ll waive your styling fee. 

One of my friends is having a baby, so we've been talking about a lot of baby stuff. And of course, I feel like my phone is listening, you know? So now my TikTok feed is filled with all these baby videos or baby-related videos. Usually I just scroll past them, but the other day one of them caught my eye. It was a viral video all about how this girl got pregnant because she took mucinex. You know, that medicine for uh, chest congestion? Sinus-related issues? I know, I was for chest congestion, sinus related issues. I know, I was like, what?

Huh? I thought this was a fake video, but as I did more research, it turns out thousands of people have tried this and tons of them swear by it. And apparently the logic is that this active ingredient in mucinex, it's called guifinicin, it thins mucus, right? Not just the mucus in your lungs or whatever, but also down there, in that area. I guess it makes things a little bit easier

for sperm to like swim through. Some studies kind of, they actually kind of back this up, but mostly it's one of those things where people swear it works for them and now it's on the internet and therefore it's true. But here's the thing, this is nothing new. Since the dawn of time, humans have been trying desperately to multiply.

People have been drinking strange potions, performing controversial rituals, and even worshiping a metal penis for centuries. When it comes to making babies, people will try anything. So today, we're diving into the weird, wild, and sometimes terrifying dark history of fertility. From urine cocktails to pussy demons, buckle up. It's gonna be a ride.

Hi friends, how are you today? I hope you're having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian, and I'm a huge fan of your videos. I hope you're enjoying this video, and I'll see you next time. Bye. Hi friends, how are you today? I hope you're having a wonderful day so far.

My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Here we believe history does not have to be boring. It might be tragic, sometimes it's happy, but either way it's our dark history. Before we get into it, don't forget to like and subscribe. I'm always here posting new content. And let me know what you think down below in the comment section. Did you know at the end of the videos, we read comments?

Yeah, eh? Anywho, now let's get into it. Okay, so if you're Googling and Gogling, it's pretty much impossible to trace like the first ever fertility ritual, but it's safe to say it's been top of mind ever since the first ever fertility ritual, but it's safe to say it's been top of mind ever since the first major civilizations.

Think like ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pretty much every culture has had their own version of what to do if you're trying to get knocked up. For example, in ancient Hindu beliefs, they believed that the Kama Sutra was a fertility guide. Yeah, it's not about being flexible and having some hot steamy flexible sexual relations. It was actually there to help you get pregnant.

But ancient Hindu beliefs tied specific foods and rituals and even, you know, sexual positions to getting pregnant. Makes sense, right? Some temples were even covered in carvings of people having sex because they believed it was a sacred act that encouraged the gods to bless them with children. Like most of my favorite things, tattoos, perfume,

makeup, medicine, you know, some of the oldest recorded fertility rituals started in ancient Egypt. Okay, listen, you're living in ancient Egypt. You're sitting in a temple doing a prayer when all of a sudden, boom, someone flashes the gods. Ass out, puss out, just out. Today you might get arrested for this kind of behavior, but back then this was actually

a fertility ritual. It was called anaserma. According to legend, one day the sun god Ra was in a terrible mood. So the goddess Hathor, who was all about love, motherhood, and joy, lifted up her robe and essentially flashed Ra, you know, to cheer him up. Apparently it worked and Ra was excited about life again. So the point of Anaserma wasn't just shock value. People truly believed that if you lifted up your skirt and you showed your lower regions to the gods, it would encourage fertility and abundance. And this wasn't just the Egyptians either. In many ancient cultures like Greece, there were lots of

fertility rituals that involved doing scandalous things in public. Do you ever start a new job and suddenly realize your personal phone is now your business phone too? I know, one minute I'm texting Joan about Ronald Reagan. The next, a stranger is calling about a collaboration, it's like 10 p.m. on a Tuesday, and I'm like, what the, how'd she get my number? But also, if you miss that call,

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slash dark history. That's open phone, O P E N P H O N E dot com slash dark history. And if you have existing numbers with another service, OpenPhone will port them over at no extra charge. OpenPhone. No missed calls, no missed customers. According to the logic of ancient Egypt, another sure way to like get some answers about a person's fertility was by peeing outside. I mean, okay, go on.

Well, people back then were asking a lot of like the same questions. Am I pregnant? Can I even get pregnant? And without labs or OBGYNs, Egyptians turned to what they did have, urine and crops. It went like this. A person who thought they might be pregnant

or was like trying to figure out if they were like fertile would pee on a handful of wheat and barley seeds. The seeds were left to soak and sprout for a few days. If the wheat sprouted, then they said it was a girl. If the barley sprouted, then it was a boy. And if nothing happened, well, it was believed that you probably weren't pregnant. You know?

And unfortunately may not be able to get pregnant at all. Yeah, so if you don't wanna go buy a pregnancy test, just go outside and pee and see what happens. This little test was also used for men. So even back then, like people knew that infertility could be an issue for men just as much as for women. So when there was difficulty conceiving, it was normal for husbands to test their,

quote unquote, fertility waters, end quote. So they'd pee, same thing, you know? And if nothing grew from his sample, then the problem might be on his end. It sounds a little weird, you know? Okay. But modern scientists actually tested this out and there's some truth to it. When a woman gets pregnant, her body surges with hormones, especially the hormone estrogen. And estrogen can actually cause grains to sprout faster. Now ain't that something? Ancient Egypt, they were doing some shit, right? So this wasn't just ancient like superstition.

It was like early biochemical testing. So if you find yourself in a wheat field, I guess you can just pee on the wheat or the grains or the soil. Instead of buying a pregnancy test, they are kind of pricey and bad for the environment. So an option. Step one, find a wheat field.

Okay. But listen, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Ancient Rome, they were very big on fertility. So they even had like a fertility festival and we talked about it in our Valentine's Day episode. It's called lubricalia. Go check out that episode if you want, we get into it. But listen, this was like the earliest version of Valentine's Day. But instead of you know roses and chocolate and whatever, guys were just kinda running around the streets,

whipping naked ladies with goat skins for fertility. Makes a lot of sense, does it? No, but it kinda, no it doesn't. It doesn't make sense, but they did. So follow me on a journey here. In the year 77 AD, a famous writer named Pliny the Elder published an encyclopedia with some crazy thoughts and suggestions.

It was called Naturalis Historia, and it was basically the Wikipedia of ancient Rome. If you read it now, if you Google it, oh man, the weird stuff that he said in there, wow. But listen, back then this was like the book about everything you needed to know about the world. Pliny wrote about medicine, botany, astronomy, animals, literally everything.

But people took his advice like very seriously. And he even had a few ideas about fertility. In the middle of this book, things get kinda, it's kinda all a little weird, but whatever. See, Pliny was all about urine. He didn't see it as like some sort of filter system. Instead, he writes about how urine can be used as medicine and even be life-saving.

Yeah. He even wrote that if anyone was struggling to get pregnant, all they had to do was drink a little urine. But not just in a urine. Nay, nay. Special urine. Urine from a eunuch. Yeah, we did a eunuch's episode. Shout out to that. If you want to watch it. That's also crazy. We've done a lot of episodes here, huh, you guys? Proud of us. Pliny was like such a well-respected

source when it came to everything. So again, people took his advice seriously, which meant women in ancient Rome were absolutely finding eunuchs and drinking their pee. It's how the yellow Gatorade came to be. You know, I love the yellow Gatorade. It is my favorite. I know, so it got me thinking. I know, I wonder if the eunuchs were like

charging for their urine. It could have been like a really good side hustle really. But in case like a urine from a eunuch wasn't available, Pliny had some alternatives. He wrote that horse, bull and boar urine were also great beverages to improve sexual arousal in the bedroom. So go find a bull.

Jeez. I know I, again, I had more questions. I was like, am I drinking it warm on ice? How am I drinking it? Cause honestly, with some ice on a hot summer day, maybe. Well, people did this and they seem to be getting like great results. It's not clear exactly how much urine Pliny

was instructing people to drink or for how long, but he did. And what I'm really getting at is that every culture instructing people to drink or for how long, but he did. And what I'm really getting at is that every culture had their own version of a fertility hack. Over in China, they weren't drinking eunuch pee. Instead, they were turning towards something that's been called the caviar of the East.

This is a delicacy that costs more, more than you know, more than rent, more than, more than a lot of things. I can't think of things, but it was expensive, very expensive and sought after. It was bird spit. Ah, yes, bird spit. Bailey, what do you mean bird spit? Listen, go to a bird, say, spit in my mouth.

No, I'm just kidding. I don't know what's more weird though, the bird spit or drinking urine from a bowl or a eunuch. Which one would you do? So it's not just any bird. This was a special little creature called a swiftlet, like the Swiffer Sweeper, swiftlet. But it's a tiny bird that doesn't use twigs or leaves

to build its nest. It's actually incredible. It builds its nest out of its own saliva. Wild. Like the bird it spits, right? Spits its spit. And then the spit, it hardens

and it keeps spitting until it builds a full nest. Wild. The Swiftlets build their nests specifically on cliffs and in caves so if you're trying to get it it's not like an easy place to get it you know? But ever since the 1500s people have been obsessed with getting a hold of these nests but they weren't collecting them for fun instead people would eat the nest. That's because they swiftlet nests are

edible bird nests. There's an acronym for it. EBN. Edible Bird's Nest. I mean, if you really think about it, isn't anything edible? So edible bird's nest was like a very high-end health potion for the Chinese elites. You know, we got, we still have that thing today. Like, elites. You know, we got, it's, we still have that thing today. Like, remember when wheatgrass shots were like all the rage? Or like, um, if you go to that bougie Air One place and get one of those like Haley Beaver smoothies, it's like that crap. Sorry, it's not crap. It was believed if you ate these, uh, EBNs, it was believed that they made you look younger, boosted your immune system, cured coughs and colds, and improved fertility. In traditional Chinese medicine, swiftlet nests were believed to nourish the yin, aka

your feminine energy. And yin was linked to fertility, menstruation, and childbirth. So women who were trying to conceive would eat bird's nest soup to prepare their bodies for pregnancy. Some even continued eating it during pregnancy to help their baby grow strong and healthy. People used to collect these nests

from cliff ledges and caves, but the sad thing was they weren't really looking in the nest before grabbing it. So many eggs and baby swiftlets, they didn't survive. Nowadays, there are actual like bird spit farms and they're designed like in giant concrete buildings to attract the swiftlets so that they'll build their nest indoors, you know,

cause like people didn't wanna climb to the top of a cliff or whatever. It wasn't very safe. So after harvesting, the nests have to be soaked, cleaned and de-feathered by hand, which can take hours. And all of this gets baked into the cost. So expensive. And even to this day, you can find EBN

and all kinds of things. Like I saw some EBN face masks for sale. Yeah, still, still using it. But traditionally, it's the main ingredient in bird's nest soup. Edible bird's nest costs anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000. And for that price, you would hope that it tasted good, right?

But people say it tastes pretty bland, kind of like gelatin. But I don't think that's the point. They're just trying to get pregnant or look young or whatever, you know. But it's usually served in like a sweet broth and sometimes with sugar or ginseng, kinda like a watery Jell-O pudding.

At the end of the day, it's not about the taste, you know? The idea is that this bowl of soup could make you look younger, feel better and get pregnant faster or Or get pregnant period. So it makes sense that birds nests were very popular among the royals all the way into the 20th century. It was said that one empress ate birds nests all the time. Her name was Empress Sichi and she was a major fan of luxury and traditional Chinese medicine.

According to court records, Sichi ate bird's nest soup a lot, mostly because she believed it would preserve her youth, boost her health, and keep her just looking radiant. Yes, okay, honestly, it kind of worked because Sichi lived into her 70s, which was a big deal at the time. Most people lived to be about 20 or 30 years old,

and she lived in her 70s so she's like bird soup bitch, spit in my mouth bird. Even in Cici's later years people noted her smooth skin and commanding presence. It was like free PR for EBN. But even after trying the bird's nest soup many people you know still struggled with infertility. And for some it seemed like nothing really ever worked. And obviously this is before science had explanations as to why. So people jumped to their own conclusions and explanations. And that's what led them to one of the most controversial fertility theories out there.

I'm talking about the pussy demon. Okay so the other night I was up scrolling on my phone like a dummy and I'm spiraling. Not about conspiracies or true crime. About a weird spot that I had on my my stomach area that I meant I've been meaning to get it checked out. Normally I'm pretty up to date on like getting my moles checked but it had been a while since I had gotten this one checked. So I was like, you know what? I need to make an appointment. But every time I make an appointment,

it turns into this whole, blah, it's like you get a call during business hours, but their business hours are the same as your business hours and it's like, I'm working, so how am I supposed to get a hold of you? Or you get on the phone and you get transferred or put on hold and they have that crappy music. Just to be told, like, yeah,

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I just went and I got this mole. You wanna see? I got this mole checked out. It looks all red and scabby because guess what? They had to remove it. So I'm glad I got it checked. True story. They cut her off.

I had to say goodbye, but it was needed. It was important. Get your moles checked. So stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to zocdoc.com slash dark history to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today. That's zocdoc.com slash dark history. Z-O-C-D-O-C.com slash dark history. Zocdoc.com slash dark history. So imagine this, it's hundreds of years ago in Japan, and there's a sweet young innocent woman just out there living or trying to live her best life.

There's no recorded name for this woman because the story I'm about to tell you was passed down orally for hundreds and hundreds of years. So according to the legend, this woman falls in love and gets married. Everything seems great. I'm in love, you know, yay. Except for one little problem. She could not get pregnant.

According to legend, this was because this poor woman was cursed. And not just like any curse. This woman was cursed with a demon who lived inside her vagina. I know, I was like, oh, I saw this movie. It's called Teeth. Remember? Anyone else? It was a good movie.

When she and her husband tried to, you know, consummate the marriage, I guess this pussy demon bit his penis right off. I told you, it's teeth. I've thought about this a lot, the movie, teeth. Like I thought, listen, if I had teeth in my hoo-ha, I would use it for good. Like Batman, but not.

Like I would go after all the bad guys, make them want to have relations with me, then chomp that wiener right off for the greater good. It would be a lonely life, but that's a sacrifice I would be willing to make to save the world. I would love a pussy demon. Oh, I would ruin so many lives.

But for the greater good? Okay, anyways, back to this story. So a few years later, this woman falls in love with another man. They waited to have relations until they were married. So, you know, they get married, then they're making sweet love, and then chop. Penis. Gone.

Severed. Dismissed. Removed. Cut right off. So after this happened twice, she realized this woman, she needed help. She needed help with this man-eating, pussy, demon situation. So she consults with a blacksmith. And I was like, oh, interesting.

But it kind of makes sense because maybe she's thinking she has like a guillotine in her area and I'm pretty sure blacksmith would make that no That's why I was the only guy I could see the logic maybe well it turns out this guy was smart and he came up with A very brilliant plan a little insane, but she was willing to try so he gets together all his blacksmith supplies and creates an iron Penis the blacksmith told the woman to use the iron penis like a dildo I don't know if this blacksmith was a scientist or just like winging it but according to the story the plan worked. Now when inserted the demon went for its usual bite and broke its teeth on the metal. Finally the pussy demon was defeated and moral of the story is, I guess you know it

never tried to bite a wiener off again. So once this demon was gone, the woman was finally free to live happily ever after and have babies without accidentally castrating anyone. Now, apparently the villagers were so impressed by this demon banishing strategy that they put the iron penis in a local shrine. Iron penis. This shrine became known as the Kaniyama Shrine and it was dedicated to fertility. Now here's where things get interesting. The town where this like legend took place

was called Kawasaki and people started coming here from all over to pray for fertility, easy childbirth, and marital harmony. So tons of women were coming to this shrine and paying tribute to this ancient legend. Over time the shrine became the center of Kanemara Matsuri, aka the Festival of the Iron Penis. Yeah, how I was looking this up, I was like, what, tell me more festival, iron penis, what?

They still have this celebration in Japan today. It's every first Sunday of April. Based off the images I saw, it looks like a really good time. There are giant penis floats parading through the streets. You can buy all these fun penis shaped foods and souvenirs. Yeah, it just looks like fun. I don't know.

But like, have you been? Let me know. And if you end up going, you can actually visit the Iron Penis. So I looked at the Iron Penis and I was like, first of all, it's huge. It's humongous. And I'm like, that isn't the same one, right,

from the story or is that the same one? Because, like she would get, you would get wrecked. I hope she's okay. But yeah it's there you can visit it and like you know and um yep. Sorry I was gonna say pray to it but like you don't pray to the shrine right? I don't know. Do you rub it? It's okay. Well, you can see it. And that's something. Yeah. Of course, as time went on, science advanced. People started to wonder if there could be something more like scientific than obviously like an iron dildo to cure infertility. And then it happened. In the 1950s, the future of fertility completely changed. And it's all thanks to a few mice

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Yes, none pee is what I said. We're talking about urine again. Sorry, but it does play a big, it's consistent in the story, the history of fertility, urine, it's in 1950s in Italy. At the time there was an endocrinologist named Bruno Lunenfeld. An endocrinologist is a doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating hormone related disorders,

including conditions involving like the thyroid, pancreas, adrenal glands, and reproductive hormones. So that was this guy. And Dr. Bruno had one mission, figure out why some women just couldn't get pregnant. But along the way, he accidentally stumbled on a hormone that turned out to be the key to not only fertility, but also birth control.

It all started when Dr. Bruno was studying post-menopausal women who were dealing with hot flashes, mood swings, and like all the stuff you hear about when it comes to like a menopause. But he wasn't just taking notes. Dr. Bruno was very hands-on. He was also collecting their urine. He had a feeling that as these women

were going through menopause, they like had to be losing certain certain hormones, maybe like through their urine. Right? So he would take urine samples that he collected from these women and then he would inject them into young female mice. Look, he tried a lot of things. He didn't just like come up with this on day one. Okay. And then the craziest thing happened to these little mice after he injected them. Look, he tried a lot of things. He didn't just like come up with this on day one, okay?

And then the craziest thing happened to these little mice after he injected them. Their ovaries went into overdrive. These mice were just super fertile. Parting, they just were ready, primed and ready to go. So Dr. Bruno was like, hmm, you know, what's in this urine? Interesting, I should drink it. No, I'm just kidding, he didn't. But like, you know, what's in this urine? Interesting, I should drink it.

No, I'm just kidding, he didn't. But like, he was wondering what's in this urine. Turns out the urine of postmenopausal women was full of something called human menopausal gonadotropin or HMG. So this is a hormone that can literally jumpstart ovulation. Ovulation is the window of time when a woman like can get pregnant.

You can get pregnant anytime, but when you're ovulating, that's the best time you can get pregnant. You know what I'm saying? So, just like that, Dr. Bruno had discovered the golden ingredient for the first fertility drug in modern medicine. But getting this hormone wasn't exactly easy.

In fact, it took an entire day's worth of urine from 10 women just to make like a single dose. So he's thinking to himself, where can I find a ton of women who are definitely not pregnant and are willing to donate their urine for science? Hmm. And that's when he comes up with nuns.

So Dr. Bruno and his team decided to work with post-menopausal Catholic nuns because their celibate lifestyle guaranteed there would be zero risk of contaminated urine. I mean, pure, steady hormone machines were these women. And these nuns were very generous. In the first year working with Dr. Bruno, over 100 nuns donated their urine,

which came out to a whopping 30,000 liters of urine. So he used all of that whole EP to create 9,000 vials of this new fertility drug called Pergonol. And the impact was huge. Pergonol helped lead to the very first in vitro fertilization or IVF pregnancy in the United States. And it's been used in countless fertility treatments worldwide ever since.

But at the same time, this wasn't just about babies. Dr. Bruno and his team were working right after World War II had ended and people were mourning for the millions of lives that were lost and part of rebuilding meant repopulating. You know, a little mouse experiment that Dr. Bruno had started was actually coming at like kind of the perfect time.

Even the Pope gave his blessing. The Vatican was officially down for the non-urine fertility program. So the next time. Even the Pope gave his blessing. The Vatican was officially down for the nun urine fertility program. So the next time you hear someone talking about hormone therapy or IVF, you know, think about all the nun urine that went into that. It's pretty wild, huh? Miracle baby, all from nun urine.

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just do like a one-time try on and also you have your clothes because you're in your own closet or something you know so it's like maybe you can like start putting it see it with other stuff you know it's nice. Honestly Stitch Fix has saved me so much time, money, and stress. So get started today at StitchFix.com slash dark history to get $20 off your first order. And they'll waive your styling fee. That's StitchFix.com slash dark history. So we've got nuns donating 30,000 liters of urine

in the 50s to help develop Pergonol. And this turns out to be the breakthrough fertility drug. I mean, even the Pope is blessing all of this. Pergonol basically kickstarted modern fertility treatments, including the treatments used in IVF. Cut to the 70s, just 20 years later, even though we have this like miracle breakthrough in medicine, there's still technically

no exact cure for infertility. At this time, infertility was still like super stigmatized. If you couldn't have kids, people just kind of whispered about it behind your back, like, oh, she can't get pregnant. You know, and there weren't a lot of options, just kind of like thoughts and prayers. But then a gynecologist named Dr. Patrick Steptoe and a scientist from Cambridge named Dr. Robert Edwards,

they teamed up to find a new solution to infertility. So these two men were on a mission to help, you know, people get pregnant using like a totally untested and very like controversial method. They were all about fertilizing an egg outside the human body. So Dr. Patrick and Dr. Robert, they met their very first patient, a woman named Leslie Brown. So Leslie was having issues conceiving and had been trying for nine years. And at this point, she and her husband John were just about ready to try anything.

So they agreed to become part of Dr. Patrick and Dr. Robert's controversial experiment. But here's what they did. Step one, collect Leslie's egg. Step two, mix it with John's sperm in a Petri dish. Step three, let it fertilize outside her body. And then step four, they implanted the tiny embryo back into her uterus. Now back then in the 70s, this was like alien science.

Before this, people believed everything fertility related had to happen internally. So when people heard about this method, I mean, minds were completely blown. So the moment the fertilized egg was implanted back into Leslie's womb, the doctors just, thoughts and prayers. They held their breath, you know? The fate of this one embryo could make their ten years of research and

80 unsuccessful procedures finally count for something. Leslie goes home and she just carries on life as usual, but she knew something monumental was happening inside her. Then she got the news, like her hormone levels were rising. The embryo had implanted and against all odds, she was pregnant. What? Yeah. Wild.

I mean, Leslie was stunned. She's grateful, she's terrified. She's like, what? Like. She's like, what? Like literally no one like knew what was gonna happen next. Could this pregnancy go to term? Could a human baby really grow from a process that had never succeeded before? In the beginning, the entire operation was kept hush hush.

Like only a handful of people even knew Leslie had undergone this procedure. So the media was not in the loop during the early months of the pregnancy. So Dr. Patrick and Dr. Robert were very protective. Not only of Leslie, but like the experiment itself. Because if anything went wrong, they didn't want it in the public eye, you know? But as the pregnancy progressed, that's when word started to spread. By the time her due date approached, the press had caught wind of the story and went crazy. Reporters and photographers were camping outside the hospital.

I mean, the secret was out and the world was watching. They were watching not just Leslie, but the birth of a new era in human reproduction. On July 25th, 1978, six pound Louise Brown was born in Oldham, England, and she was the world's first IVF baby. Now headlines, they were calling her the test tube baby, which technically isn't even accurate because she was conceived in a, technically in a Petri dish. You know, like there was no test tube, whatever. But you know, they're getting a little crazy.

I mean, people freaked out. They were thinking this was somehow a sign of the end of the world. Yeah, it went a little extreme. There were like wild rumors that IVF babies wouldn't have souls or they would come out with horns Or that like Luis would grow up sterile and sane or that she would literally glow in the dark It's like can't you just be positive and try and like be positive here?

Geez and the Catholic Church they seem to be like the most upset out of everyone all of a sudden They were like, wait a minute. What are you doing with that nun pee? IVF? No, no. They believe that that was playing God. I mean, they were fine with letting nuns pee in buckets, you know, for like hormone injections, but not with IVF. According to the church,

this was because IVF separated procreation from the quote unquote sacred act of sex. On top of that it was believed that IVF was destroying unused embryos, which to the church was the same thing as murder. When you're going through the process of IVF sometimes multiple embryos are created but only like one or two are used. The rest can either be donated, destroyed, or stored for a person to use later. But whether the Church and the people liked it or not, the nuns and the Pope at the time,

they launched a medical revolution. I mean, they unlocked the tools needed for IVF. A few years later, the Catholic Church condemned IVF, saying children should be conceived through natural marital intercourse. I think now I googled it really quick and they were like, it's okay kinda... maybe. Oh no. Whatever. Anyway, all this panic led to a lot of like insane theories about how Miss Louise Brown, the first IVF baby, would turn out as an adult.

And, um, spoiler, Louise grew up normal. She didn't have horns, she didn't glow in the dark. She had a soul. She would go on to live her life, have her own family, and to this day, she serves as an ambassador for IVF organizations. The downside of IVF is that the average treatment can cost between 15 and $30,000.

And that's a lot. I'm pretty sure we all agree that's a lot of money. And if it doesn't work, if your treatment doesn't work, like you don't get your money back. Yeah. And like many people can't afford this. And it's not covered by like insurance policies for the most part. So people are definitely willing to try other treatments, tests, supplements, whatever they think will help them get pregnant. The fertility industry is actually having a major boom right now.

I mean, now that we understand pregnancy better on a scientific level, there's all kinds of treatments available. I mean, now everywhere you look, there's something. Like there's gummy bears filled with vitamins to allegedly help fertility, urine tests that can tell you exactly when you're most fertile based on hormones, there's ovulation trackers so you know when to have sex, there's at home insemination kits,

there's mucinex, yeah I mean I'm sure everyone has their their tricks all that if you eat certain foods whatever we still have it that's just the tip of the iceberg, really. Between IVF, fertility assessments, hormone treatments, medications, supplements, some major money is being thrown around. In 2023, the global fertility services market was valued at approximately $42.23 billion. The fertility industry is projected to grow

to over $70 billion by 2030. Because at the end of the day, we still haven't found a magical pregnancy potion. We have come a long way from drinking Unic pee and showing our hoo-ha to Ra, but that's history for you, you know? I mean, really, nothing has changed. I mean, same pee, different era, we're still peeing on things, kinda the same. Next time on Dark

History, the other week I was invited to a baby shower. It feels like I'm getting invited to one every other month these days and every time I open a baby registry, oh my god, I am shooketh at the amount of stuff a baby needs. Now these days it seems like they've thought of everything to keep babies safe and healthy. But that wasn't always the case. Baby products used to be about keeping babies quiet and out of the way of their parents, no matter the cost. I mean entire companies were created around this idea and this led to the deaths of thousands of babies in history Join us next week as we dive into the dark history of toxic baby products By the way, we're dark next week. So there won't be a new upload, but we'll be back on August 6

I'd love to hear your guys's reactions to today's story So make sure to leave a comment below so I can see what you guys are saying, and your comment might even be featured in a future episode. Yeah, now let's read a couple of comments you guys have left me. ZeldaBoy left me a comment on our Amelia Earhart episode, saying, fun fact, thanks to an orphanage fire,

Amelia is my cousin. What do you mean? I need more. You can't just like drop this kind of comment and I'm just supposed to go along with it. What do you mean, thanks to an orphanage fire, Amelia is my cousin? What?

I have some follow-ups here, Zelda boy. Thanks to an orphanage fire, Amelia is my cousin. Cool. Okay, awesome. I think I kind of feel bad for that orphanage fire. Not gonna address that. But okay, cool. Thanks, Zelda boy. Shout out to Amelia.

Thank you. Countess Entertainment 9051 left us a comment on our Joni Awards video saying, we need Joan merch Bailey. Listen, I would, we need Joan merch, Bailey. Listen, I would love to do Joan merch. I love her, she's beautiful, she's gorgeous, she's Miss America, she's Miss United States. Yeah, I've actually been working with Joan. We're coming out with bird-sized clothing,

little t-shirts and cardigans for your lovely birds at home to wear. Let me know if you're interested. We will be making bird shoes. Joan has pitched some great like little booties for the birds. Different little bedazzled like bird eyelashes because you know girls gotta be glam. She's in our logo. Did you see that? Redid the logo. Techno left us an episode recommendation on Spotify, saying, what about the dark history of cruises? Listen, do you watch my murder mystery makeup? One of my very first murder mystery makeup episodes I did

was actually about the death or a murder that took place on a cruise ship and the legalities of that. Because when you're out on water, who is held responsible for that? Who would take over that murder case? Like, it was actually really interesting and terrifying at the same time.

And then it sent me down a rabbit hole of like all these like murder cases that have happened on cruise ships and how they just kind of fall through the cracks because no, like, what do you do? Who's taking it over? You know? Have you heard of that big cruise ship?

What's it called? Concerta, it's not Concerta. I think that's an antidepressant. Concordia. Oh, I have been dying. I don't know why I haven't done this. I've been dying to do an episode on the Concordia cruise ship. And I was like, is that a murder mystery

or is that a dark history episode? But I became obsessed with that because that whole story, do you know that story? My God, let me tell you this big old fancy cruise ship that this guy was having an affair, the captain was having an affair and then they crashed the cruise ship. And it went down, it was billions of dollars. So people died and he was like, and like he got big trouble. We should do that. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm on it. You don't gotta give me a reason. I've

been actually dying to tell the story. I just didn't know where it belonged. Anywho, thank you guys so much for watching. Keep on commenting because maybe your comment will be featured in a future episode. Did you know you can join me over on my YouTube where you can actually watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And while you're there, you can also catch my murder mystery and makeup. Hey, don't forget to subscribe. I'm telling you, I'm here for you.

And hey, if you don't know, Dark History is an audio boom original. A special thank you to our expert, Dr. Mary Fissel, PhD. J. Mario Molina Professor of the History of Medicine at John Hopkins University and author of Pushback. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. I hope you have a good day, you make good choices, and I'll be talking to you later. Goodbye!