But what is even more interesting than that is how some world-changing inventions were created for a completely different, and often stupid, purpose. For instance ...

Plenty of products we use every day have interesting little back stories to them. For instance, we bet your fourth grade self could find no greater joy than discovering that Q-tips were originally called " Baby Gays ."

5 Lysol Was a Terrible Gynecological Snake Oil

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The next time you get the chance, take a look at the warning label on a bottle of Lysol. The first one that catches the eye is "Do not spray on skin." A close second: "Extremely flammable."

Now, let's play a fun game: Bearing these in mind, see if you can read the rest of this entry without cringing.

Boy, are you doomed to fail.

SFist

That wince of sympathetic crotch pain is perfectly natural. Or the onset of a kidney stone.

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The Original Use:

There really is no way to put this gently: Lysol used to be peddled as a genital disinfectant for the ladies.

When the product first came out in the 1920s, it was marketed as a feminine hygiene product and, we kid you not, a form of birth control by way of vaginal douching. Lysol ads proclaimed a plethora of benefits for pretty much every gynecological need, making claims that were 100 percent, natural horseshit. The ads were, however, backed up by a bunch of prominent European doctors no one had ever heard about (because they were completely made up). The American Medical Association eventually called the makers of Lysol out, but by then their product had already been the leading form of female birth control from 1930 to 1960.