In earlier times, women had few options to prevent pregnancy. It was not until 1960 that the first “pill” to be taken was available. The prerequisite for the development of the pill was the discovery that the female body is subject to regular cyclical changes, which is controlled by many hormones.
History of the pill
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Thus, since about 1850, it has been known that a woman’s ovaries produce an egg at regular intervals.
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In 1902, the hormones that control reproduction were discovered.
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Then in 1919, the physiologist Ludwig Haberlandt was the first to come up with the idea that a targeted hormone administration pretends pregnancy to the female organism, thereby preventing ovulation and thus conception.
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Austrian-born Carl Djerassi succeeds in 1951 in the synthesis of an orally effective artificial pregnancy hormone.
A drug to swallow?
The emergence of the pill, however, owes it mainly to Margaret Sanger and Katharine McCormick: they gave Gregory Pincus in 1951 to develop a cheap and mass producible contraceptive that is swallowed like a headache tablet. In 1960, the first oral contraceptive pill came onto the market; in 1961, it was also available in Germany.
Until the 1970s, the pill was highly controversial and the cause of numerous demonstrations. In 1968, for example, Pope Paul VI banned artificial contraception in his encyclical “Humanae vitae.”
Safe contraceptive
Nevertheless, the triumph of the pill was unstoppable, because the pill has relieved women of a great uncertainty and fear of unwanted pregnancy. A distinction is made between 2 forms:
- The classic birth control pill consists of two hormones, estrogen and progestin. All preparations on the market today contain the synthetically produced estrogen ethinyl estradiol in varying amounts (maximum 50 µg). There are many different progestogens, and new ones are being added all the time. Meanwhile, one has arrived at the so-called third generation.
- Progestogen monopreparations (mini-pill). These preparations for oral contraception contain only small amounts of a progestogen.
The birth control pill use about 65 million women worldwide, also in Germany it is the most widely used contraceptive. To this acceptance has also contributed that the pill is the safest contraceptive after sterilization. Statistically, only two unintended pregnancies occur when 1,000 women rely on it for a year.
