The beginnings of the contraceptive pill
by Penny Bonning, Archivist
On 15th October 1951, a young Mexican chemist, Luis E Miramontes, working under the direction of the Austrian-American chemist, Carl Djerassi and the Mexican scientist, George Rosenkranz, synthesized the compound norethindrone, which was to become the progestin used in one of the first two oral contraceptives.i This synthesis, carefully noted in his personal laboratory notebook, was a great step towards the pioneering work of the American biologist, Dr Gregory Pincus and the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research which was carried out during the 1950s, and which led to the first birth control pill being approved for sale in May 1960 in the USA. This first contraception pill, Enovid, had been developed and tested in the US by Gregory Pincus and Dr John Rock, a renowned Catholic obstetrician and gynaecologist, and was supported by the Searle Pharmaceutical Company; religious and ethical barriers were only some of the obstacles to the successful launch of the pill, combined with concerns over the safety of this new drug, which had after all been developed for a social purpose rather than to cure a medical condition.
Across the ocean, it was not until May 1961 that the UK Health Minister, Enoch Powell, announced that the oral contraceptive pill would be available ‘to all’ on the NHS.ii There were fears among politicians that the drug would be a huge financial burden on the state, and there was hesitance among medics about the long-term side effects of the drug. Fears about encouraging promiscuity meant that the pill was only meant to be prescribed to married women, and in parts of the US strict regulations against the provision of contraception persisted well into the 1960s.
Following pages:
The Royal Colleges and the pill
References:
iSource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_E._Miramontes [October 2011]
iiSource: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/4/newsid_3228000/3228207.stm