A brief history of the birth control pill

By

May 7, 2010

Photo: Flickr/mharrsch

Antiquity: Ancient Egyptian women use a combination of cotton, dates, honey and acacia as a suppository, and it turns out fermented acacia really does have a spermicidal effect. The Bible and the Koran both refer to coitus interruptus (the withdrawal method).

1914-1921 Activist Margaret Sanger coins the term “birth control,” opens first birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and starts the American Birth Control League, the precursor to Planned Parenthood.

1934 Endocrinologist Gregory Pincus creates a test tube rabbit — and is vilified as a Frankenstein.

Katherine McCormick & Margret Sanger. Courtesy: Smithsonian Institute

1951 Sanger and Pincus meet at a dinner party in New York; she persuades him to work on a birth control pill.

1951 Meanwhile, Carl Djerassi, a chemist in Mexico City, creates a pill by synthesizing hormones from Mexican yams. On a chemical level, the pill has been invented, but Djerassi isn’t equipped to test, produce or distribute it.

1952 The race is on. Pincus tests progesterone in rats and finds it works. He meets gynecologist John Rock, who has already begun testing chemical contraception in women. Frank Colton, chief chemist at the pharmaceutical company Searle, also independently develops synthetic progesterone.

1953 If Sanger is the activist behind the pill and Pincus the scientist, Katherine McCormick — biologist, women’s rights activist and heiress to a great fortune — is the money. She writes Pincus a check for $40,000 to conduct research.

1954 Rock and Pincus conduct the first human trials on 50 women in Massachusetts. It works.

1956 Large scale clinical trials are conducted in Puerto Rico, where there were no anti-birth control laws on the books. The pill is deemed 100 percent effective, but some serious side effects are ignored.

1957 The FDA approves the pill, but only for severe menstrual disorders, not as a contraceptive. An unusually large number of women report severe menstrual disorders.

1960 The pill is approved for contraceptive use.

1962 It’s an instant hit. After two years, 1.2 million Americans women are on the pill; after three years, the number almost doubles, to 2.3 million.

1964 But the pill is still controversial: It remains illegal in eight states. The Pope convenes the Commission on Population, the Family and Natality; many within the Catholic Church are in favor.

1965 Five years after the FDA approval, 6.5 million American women are on pill, making it the most popular form of birth control in the U.S.

1967 The controversy over the pill takes on a new dimension when African-American activists charge that Planned Parenthood, by providing the pill in poor, minority neighborhoods, is committing genocide.

1968 Pope Paul VI ultimately declares his opposition to the pill in the Humanae Vitae encyclical.

1969 Barbara Seaman publishes The Doctor’s Case Against the Pill, which exposes side effects including the risk of blood clots, heart attack, stroke, depression, weight gain and loss of libido.

1970 Senate hearings on the safety of the pill are disrupted by women demanding a voice on the issue.

1979 Sales of the pill drop by 24 percent in four years due to publicity about health risks.

1988 The original high-dose pill is taken off the market; an FDA study shows the heath benefits of newer pills, including a decreased risk of ovarian cancer, iron deficiency anemia and pelvic inflammatory disease.

Tri-Cyclen

1997 Not just a contraceptive any more — the FDA approves Ortho Pharmaceutical’s Tri-Cyclen pill as treatment for acne.

2000 The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules that prescription contraception must be covered by health insurance offered by employers.

2003 The FDA approves Seasonale, a pill that gives women only four periods a year.

2007 What could be next? Lybrel makes the annoying period a thing of the past for those willing to try it.

2010 Fifty years after the FDA approval, problems remain: there are currently 1,100 lawsuits pending against Bayer Healthcare Corporation regarding blood clots, heart attacks and strokes allegedly caused by the popular pills Yaz, Yazmin and the generic Ocella.

Last modified: May 7, 2010 at 4:59 pm
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  • http://www.toothpage.com/node/181 bob

    It was interesting to read about the history of the birth control pill. I never knew that insurance wasn’t required to cover birth control until 2000. I now know more about birth control than I ever thought I would.

    Bob

  • http://www.rotlaw.com/ guest

    Thanks for the share. I never knew birth control pill have come a long way till reading this article.

  • http://www.biblehealth.com/birth-control/birth-control-methods.html best birth control

    It is estimated that there are over three million unplanned pregnancies every year
    in the United States. Half of these unplanned pregnancies happen because a
    couple does not use any birth control at all, and the other half occur because
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  • Morgan A Bond

    That was very informative!! Thanks so much!!!

  • Catalinaarco

    It is sad that women think they can take poison and not have consecuences. what about controling oneself’? what about waiting to get married to have sexual realtionships? sadly the pill is the mother of abortion, you know, abortion, the killing of a new human being before she is born? and the damaging of her mother for the rest of her life. Sad indeed

  • Bearycat

    Just because a woman marries does not mean that she suddenly wants children. What about those married couples who do not want or cannot afford to have children? Should a woman forgo sexual relations with her own husband rather than take a pill which is now safer than pregnancy? 

  • Common Sense

    Why doesn’t your rant reflect any words about the male’s responsibility in creating human life? If males worn condoms, there would be 90% less abortions.

  • palindrome

    birth control is not abortion. it prevents the egg from being fertilized so that the women doesn’t get pregnant in the first place.

  • http://120mbooks.com/?p=2155 Dads: The New Moms | 120Mbooks | e-books on trends

    [...] vote and run for political office (Switzerland was the last, in 1971). It’s been 50 years since oral contraceptives were approved and gave women more control over whether to have children, when and how many. Women [...]

  • http://mariansalzman.com/?p=2467 Dads: The New Moms « Marian Salzman

    [...] vote and run for political office (Switzerland was the last, in 1971). It’s been 50 years since oral contraceptives were approved and gave women more control over whether to have children, when and how many. Women [...]

  • http://www.prosumer-report.com/blog/2012/12/20/dads-the-new-moms/ Dads: The New Moms | Havas Worldwide Prosumer Reports

    [...] to vote and run for political office (Switzerland was the last, in 1971). It's been 50 years since oral contraceptives were approved and gave women more control over whether to have children, when, and how many. Women [...]

  • Bikerchickrules

    Your education on the pill is pretty limited. I suggest you talk with your doctor instead of your clergy. If not fertilizing an egg every month is tantamount to abortion then every woman in the world who has her menstrual cycle each month is aborting a potential life according to your argument. The only thing sad thing here is that if one follows your logic, you end up looking misinformed and uneducated.

  • http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/03/12/birth-control-for-men-why-the-delay-2/ Birth Control for Men: Why the Delay? | RH Reality Check

    [...] mirage? Medical birth control options for women, such as the pill, have been around since the 1960s. Since then, we have landed on the moon, created the Internet, and put cell phones in the hands of [...]

  • Anonymous

    So women who wait to have sex until they are married don’t use birth control?

  • http://blog.naturalhealthyconcepts.com/2013/04/02/birth-control-pills-effective-but-hazardous/ Birth Control Pills: Effective but Hazardous | Healthy Concepts with a Nutrition Bias
  • Khaleeq

    Rock and Pincus conduct the first human trials in Puerto Rico not in Massachusetts as contraception was illegal in Massachusetts at that time.

  • ecleaner

    After doing my own research about the pill people I know who took the pill at a young age and now have children wished they did not take the pill. Their children have a form of autism. 1 in 10,000 children have autism. If you do not believe me conduct your own study and see for yourself. That is all I am asking.. and remember you are one of these people think to yourself, “When I pass who will look after my child?” Sad is itn’t.

  • Adrienne

    I don’t know if it is the pill. People who use it want to plan when to have their children. Many people don’t have the money at the age of 20(when women are most fertile) to have children. There is an increase risk of all kinds of birth defects and problems when people have children older. However, I don’t think people have the right to tell people when to have children. I have known people who have had children when poor and ended up on welfare. Many people would take the risks of possible birth defects to plan to have their children when they are financially and emotionally capable. If people want to do family planning, that is their business. I also have a very good friend whose brother is severely autistic. They love their member of the family. Yes that is an issue of who will take care of him later in life. But I don’t think they would not have wanted him. Again, that is their business. Make decisions for yourself and let others do the same.

  • Adrienne

    Women do take the birth control pill for other reasons also. Some have fibroid tumors or problems with their periods. Did you ever think that someone might be on the pill and not even sexually active?