The History of Oral Contraceptives

Oral contraceptives are pills containing synthetic versions of estrogen and progesterone, which interfere with ovulation, thereby preventing pregnancy. Birth control advocates urged the development of oral contraceptives to place birth control firmly in the hands of women.

Development

• In the mid-1950s, Margaret Sanger, who first conceived of birth control through a pill, met a researcher, Gregory Pincus, who had an idea of how to create this pill. Sanger convinced Planned Parenthood to fund the research of Pincus.

Enovid

• Pincus along with a physician, John Rock, successfully tested a synthetic version of progesterone as oral contraception. They found that adding estrogen to the formulation alleviated break-through bleeding. They named the combination pill Enovid.

Acceptance

• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Enovid for menstrual disorders in 1957 and for oral contraception in 1960. According to Andrea Tone in her book Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America, growing American fears about overpopulation facilitated the acceptance of oral contraceptives.

Effects

• Women rapidly adopted oral contraceptives following FDA approval of Enovid, but some states still banned birth control. The Supreme Court struck down birth control bans in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). Oral contraceptives led the way for the sexual revolution of the 1960s, according to William F. Bynum in his book The Western Medical Tradition: 1800 to 2000.

Recent History

• Since the 1960s, oral contraceptive research has focused on increasing the pill's safety while decreasing its side effects. Researchers have accomplished these goals by reducing the amount of estrogen contained in the pill as well as developing different versions of the synthetic progesterone.