Where can I find the history of the birth control pill?

Question

I need some info on the birth control pill.. like when it was released etc.. does anyone know where i can find this? i googled some stuff, but came up with only new information on it...

Answer 1

3000 B.C.
The condom is invented in Egypt. Ancient drawings clearly depict men wearing condoms - sometimes made of material that may have been animal hide. It's not clear what they were made of -- or whether they were used for sex or ceremonial dress.


1850 B.C.
Meet the pessary. It's the earliest contraceptive device for women. Pessaries are objects or concoctions inserted into the vagina to block or kill sperm. By 1850 B.C., Egyptians used pessaries made of crocodile dung, honey, and sodium carbonate. Crocodile dung is alkaline. But its use, note contraceptive historians Malcolm Potts and Martha Campbell, "perhaps reflects Freudian more than pharmacologic concerns."


600 B.C.
Greek colonists found Celene in North Africa. Soon after, they discover a great treasure: Silphion, reputedly the first oral contraceptive. Silphion was an herb -- thought to be a kind of giant fennel -- that grew only in the area now known as Libya. Despite heroic efforts, it could not be cultivated. Worth its weight in silver, silphion was harvested to extinction by 100 A.D.


1640 A.D.
The oldest known condoms -- dated to about 1640 -- are found in Dudley Castle near Birmingham, England. They were made of fish and animal intestines. Condoms in those days were used to prevent sexually transmitted diseases rather than for contraception.


1734
Young Giacomo Girolamo Casanova begins his amorous career. He is among the first to use condoms to prevent pregnancy. Said to prefer condoms made from lamb intestine -- still the preferred material for natural gut condoms -- he also used linen condoms tied off with a ribbon.


Although contraceptive techniques had been known in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, the modern movement for birth control began in Great Britain, where the writings of Thomas Robert Malthus stirred interest in the problem of overpopulation. By the 1870s a wide variety of birth control devices were available in English and American pharmacies, including rubber condoms and diaphragms, chemical suppositories, vaginal sponges, and medicated tampons. Easy public access to contraceptive devices in the United States aroused the ire of Anthony Comstock and others, who lobbied Congress until it passed (1873) a bill prohibiting the distribution of these devices across state lines or through the mail. Moreover, in England in 1877, Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh were tried for selling The Fruits of Philosophy, a pamphlet on contraceptive methods, written in 1832 by an American, Charles Knowlton. After their famous trial, the Malthusian League was founded. Meanwhile, a variety of contraceptive devices remained available to a large public, usually advertised in veiled but unmistakable language.

In 1878 the first birth control clinic was founded in Amsterdam by Aletta Jacobs. The first U.S. birth control clinic, opened (1916) by Margaret Sanger in Brooklyn, N.Y., was closed by the police; she received a 30-day jail sentence. She later permanently established a clinic in New York City in 1923. In Great Britain the Malthusian League, aided by Marie Stopes, established a birth control clinic in London in 1921.



The birth control pill was introduced to the public in the early 1960s. Birth control pills are synthetic hormones that mimic the way real estrogen and progestin works in a women's body. The pill prevents ovulation - no new eggs are released by a women on the pill since her body is tricked into believing she is already pregnant.

Frank Colton
Frank Colton was the inventor of Enovid, the first oral contraceptive - National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Carl Djerassi
Carl Djerassi was the inventor of modern oral contraceptives or the pill. - National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Answer 2

Oh. I read an EXCELLENT article on that exact subject but unfortunately I don't remember the book name. I do remember it said that the birth control pill was tested in Puerto Rico in the early 1960's.At the time, the island had a serious overpopulation problem, so the birth control pill was field-tested there. As you may know, over the years, more effective pills using less hormones were introduced. The horomone level given at that field-testing time was quite high.

Answer 3

History of the pill:

By the 1930s, scientists had isolated and determined the structure of the steroid hormones and found that high doses of androgens, estrogens or progesterone inhibited ovulation, but obtaining them from European pharmaceutical companies produced from animal extracts was extraordinarily expensive.
In 1939, Russell Marker, a professor of organic chemistry at Pennsylvania State University, developed a method of synthesizing progesterone from plant steroid sapogenins, initially using sarsapogenin from sarsaparilla which proved too expensive. After three years of extensive botanical research he discovered a much better starting material, diosgenin from inedible Mexican wild yams found in the jungles of Veracruz near Orizaba. Unable to interest his research sponsor Parke-Davis in the commercial potential of synthesizing progesterone from Mexican yams, Marker left Penn State and in 1944 co-founded Syntex with two partners in Mexico City before leaving Syntex a year later. Syntex broke the monopoly of European pharmaceutical companies on steroid hormones, reducing the price of progesterone almost 200-fold over the next eight years.
In 1940, Percy Lavon Julian's research at Glidden Co.,Chicago,USA took on a new direction when he began work on synthesizing sex steroids: progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol, isolated from soybean oil by a "foam" technique he invented. His work made possible the production of these hormones on a large industrial scale, thereby reducing the cost of treating hormonal deficiencies, arthritis, and other disorders and setting the stage for future developments in reproductive research.
Midway through 20th century, the stage was set for the development of a hormonal contraceptive, but pharmaceutical companies, universities and governments showed no interest in pursuing research.

Answer 4

I read a book on it and I believe it is called "The Pill" it talks about the Mother of contracetion Magaret Sanger. Really good book
try to google Margaret Sanger

Answer 5

the only thing i can think of is googleing the "history of.." sorry if that's no help

Answer 6

This site has some great information:
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blthepill.htm

Answer 7

google

Answer 8

yahoo or msn

Answer 9

you can yahoo it or go to ask.com

Answer 10

it works 99.9%