Progesterex is a fictitious

date rape drug A date rape drug is any drug that incapacitates another person and renders that person vulnerable to sexual assault, including rape. The substances are associated with date rape because of reported incidents of their use in the context of two p ...

that would purportedly cause sterilization. It is part of a hoax that began to circulate in 1999 via

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

on the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. No actual drug by this name or even with these properties exists, and no such incident has ever been documented or confirmed.Beaumont Hospital investigates fake email warning of rape drug
/ref> The most high profile person falling for the hoax was British MP

Lynne Featherstone Lynne Choona Featherstone, Baroness Featherstone, (''née'' Ryness; born 20 December 1951) is a British politician, businesswoman and Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. Prior to entering politics, Featherstone was a successful bu ...

, who asked a question about the fake drug in Parliament.

Email contents

Typical contents of the e-mail hoax are as follows, although different versions tend to turn up over time:

Debunking

There is no "sterilization pill" under any name that exists for sterilizing horses. Sterilization of male horses is performed surgically, while mares are usually left unaltered.

Notable examples

A version of this e-mail was translated and sent around in Brazil in 2008–2009. A version of this hoax also made the rounds via bulletins on MySpace,

Bebo Bebo ( ) was an American social networking website that originally operated from 2005 until its bankruptcy in 2013 and relaunched in February 2021. The site relaunched several times after its bankruptcy with a number of short-lived offerings, ...

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

, and

Tagged Tagged may refer to: * Tagged (website), a social discovery website * Tagged (web series), an American teen psychological thriller web series {{disambiguation ...

and in the form of a group named "Heads Up Ladies". According to the Spanish language website VSAntirus.com at least two versions in Spanish have made the rounds since 2001 as well. A Swedish and later Norwegian version circulated 2008–2009 with a signature of Birgitta Olofsson, Dr Med in nursing science of Umeå University.

UK Parliament incident

On 18 April 2006 UK

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

submitted a Written Question to the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...

on whether the Home Office had calculated the number of

date rape Date rape is a form of acquaintance rape and dating violence. The two phrases are often used interchangeably, but date rape specifically refers to a rape in which there has been some sort of romantic or potentially sexual relationship between ...

incidences that had been connected with Progesterex. Home Office Minister

Paul Goggins Paul Gerard Goggins (16 June 1953 – 7 January 2014) was a British Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wythenshawe and Sale East from 1997 until his death in January 2014. He was also previously a Minister of Sta ...

replied that "Progesterex does not exist". Featherstone criticised the government stating they "need to do more to discover the unearthly monster who sends them out" and that "their cavalier attitude will not do."Mad Men star Christina Hendricks is great role model, says Equalities Minister - Telegraph
/ref> However, critics such as fellow Liberal Democrat James Graham castigated Featherstone's conduct in "criticising the Home Office for not having a response to made up drugs and made up crimes", stating "trivialising rape in this way without bothering to do basic research first doesn’t help anybody".Quaequam Blog! » Cook’d and Bomb’d
/ref> Many see the incident as having strong parallels with a previous case where MP

David Amess David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

asked a question in Parliament about a fictitious drug called " Cake".

References

External links