Contraceptive pills: Where does it all start?

Contraceptive pills are the easiest way of avoiding pregnancy and in recent times, have gained huge amount of popularity in the recent times. The first human contraceptive pill was invented by Carl Djerassi in Mexico in 1951. The first commercially available oral contraceptive pill, Enovid, was invented by American chemist Frank Colton in 1960.

Contraceptives have been known to exist from the most ancient times when women in Egypt used a combination of cotton, dates, honey and acacia as a suppository, and it turned out that fermented acacia really did have a spermicidal effect i.e. it kills the sperms :)

Although pleasures of women have been sidelined for centuries and sex for women is supposed to be just 'reproductive', in 1914, a woman named Margaret Sanger, first coined the term birth control and became a leading activist, opening the first birth control clinic in America, the precursor of Planned Parenthood.

By 1960, the pills had been produced, passed through human trials, approved and was out for public. These pills were not only used for birth control but also for many menstrual disorders and irregular menstruation. But along with free and safe sex for women came side-effects that not many talked about.

In 1969, Barbara Seaman published The Doctor’s Case Against the Pill, which exposed side effects including the risk of blood clots, heart attack, stroke, depression, weight gain and loss of libido. Over the next decade, the market for these pills reduced by 24% while there were lawsuits against the original creators.

Finally, in 1988 the heavy dose pills were taken off the market and newer pills were put out with more authentic research. An FDA study showed the health benefits of newer pills included a decreased risk of ovarian cancer, iron deficiency anemia and pelvic inflammatory disease.

By 2000, this pills were being used as an affective treatment to acne.

With improved research, newer and more effective pills have been made, with lesser side-effects. Overall, it is safe to say that oral contraceptive pills are one of the greatest inventions for women.