It saddens us to share the news of the passing of a loyal and venerable friend of ours, Gygel N9 spermicide.
Personally, I have been distributing Gygel for over 15 years. It started as a small, 30-gramme tube and grew into a larger version, weighing 81 grammes.
For several decades, Gygel was the go-to spermicide in the UK, available on prescription through the NHS. It was a Nonoxynol 9 (N9) product, highly effective at breaking down sperm cell walls but also causing itchiness due to its similarity in action to breaking down the user’s skin cell walls.
As with many older products, newer, younger, and fresher alternatives emerged, threatening Gygel’s relevance.
ContraGel Green quietly gained popularity in Northern Europe, establishing itself as a reliable alternative to N9-based spermicides. Unlike Gygel, ContraGel used Lactic Acid as its base, making it a “diaphragm gel” that avoided the itchiness issue. Introduced to the UK by RDO Medical in 2010, ContraGel began to gain recognition as a “natural” and “vegan” alternative to Gygel, eventually becoming known simply as ContraGel.
Around 2015, ContraGel experienced a significant boost when it was repackaged as Caya Gel. This coincided with the launch of Caya diaphragm, a revolutionary, single-sized diaphragm that made diaphragms more accessible to a wider range of users. The combination of ContraGel’s historical reliability and the heavy marketing of Caya Gel led to Gygel’s decline.
It’s worth noting that Gygel is not just a product but also a recipe, brand, and intellectual property that can be traded, licensed, or manufactured by different companies in various factories. Over time, there have been changes in the manufacturer’s details on older Gygel packaging, suggesting that manufacturing and distribution agreements have evolved.
Later, supply problems arose. I recall contacting numerous suppliers and wholesalers to source Gygel. By analyzing different batch numbers and expiry dates, I discovered that a batch of Gygel was being produced, introduced into the market, and then discontinued for approximately a year. In my opinion, this contributed to Gygel’s demise. End users and retailers were compelled to switch to an alternative, and they may have never returned when a new batch was produced.
The alternative was ContraGel and Caya Gel. Health centers, GPs, FPA clinics, and end users began switching to these products. As a result, the demand for Gygel decreased to the point where profitable production became questionable. Production gaps increased, and eventually, Gygel was discontinued.
We directly contacted the manufacturer, who confirmed the news: Gygel had been discontinued.
As with all passing products, after a moment of mourning, we must look to the future.
If you are a diaphragm user, a health center, a midwife, or an FPA clinic and require a contraceptive gel for your diaphragms or cervical caps, please contact ContraGel.co.uk or Caya.co.uk.
For two decades David has been the owner and director of several marketing and distribution companies. During this time he has learned the indisputable benefits of looking after customers, colleagues, workers, suppliers and the local community, treating them all as respected stakeholders in a common project. Recently he consolidated his personal beliefs and business ethics by founding and developing several ethical companies.
