The silent revolution of the pill
When was born?
It has long data. In the 30s of the twentieth century, it had already been possible to isolate and determine the structure of steroid hormones , and saw that very high doses of androgens, estrogens or progesterone could inhibit ovulation . Exist for the moment extracts of these hormones from animals, and developed by European pharmaceuticals; but they were very expensive.
At Pennsylvania State University, an organic chemistry professor, Russell Marker , developed a technique in 1939 to synthesize progesterone from plant steroid sapogenin hormones, and did so initially with sarsaparilla, which was very expensive.
He continued to research and after many botanical experiments he found the Mexican yam, which was considerably cheaper and much more effective. Parke-Davis , his sponsor, was not very interested and Marker left the University of Pennsylvania and co-founded Syntex (in 1944) with two partners from Mexico City, a company that would end the European monopoly of steroid hormones by reducing up to 200 times the prices in the next eight years.
However, neither universities, nor pharmaceutical companies nor governments saw it as useful.
Many studies, investigations and tests were done during the following years with private financing, until in 1956 the first contraceptive trials began in women. Those who took the first step and were considered the parents of the pill are Carl Djerassi, Luis Miramontes and George Rosenkranz , although in this regard Carl Djerassi confessed that he never had birth control in mind. All studies were aimed, rather, at solving female infertility .
The first pill: Enovid
These tests were carried out in Puerto Rico, in April 1956, and another in Los Angeles, in June of the same year, and the following year a symposium was held to review the pill, concluding that the content could be reduced of estrogen to reduce the side effects.
On June 10, 1957, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the pill for menstrual disorders, and on June 23, 1960, it was officially approved as a contraceptive (although at that time, and in calculations more well conservative, at least 500,000 women were already using it). But it was in July 1961 when it went on sale.
Contraceptives for all?
At that time, American society was quite conservative when it came to sex.
Contraceptives were not available to all women, only married women, and that in some states of the Union. In 1965, and after the trial Griswold v. Connecticut , the sale was opened to any woman with official husband, and single women (who also did not sell the pill in all states) after another trial, that of Eisenstadt v. Baird , in 1972.
Do we care about the side effects?
The side effects of the contraceptive pill have been many. For example, the risk of venous thrombosis increased, as did cerebrovascular accidents, or acute myocardial infarctions; Women who smoked or were hypertensive were more affected, and it was not until 1969 when journalist and feminist Barbara Seaman published her famous book The Case of Doctors Against the Pill that hearings were organized to discuss these effects.
After many setbacks, discussions and undoubtedly disappointments, a group of women - activists, feminists and professionals - managed to issue an ordinance to include prospects explaining possible side effects and risks, so that the woman who decided to take them was better. informed
To this day, the pill has been significantly improved and contains a third less of estrogen than its predecessor and lower doses of different and more powerful progestins.
One pill, many changes
Undoubtedly, the pill was a major trigger for women's liberation in many aspects, including, of course, the sexual one . But it also influenced the political and the work, because when deciding themselves when and with whom to have children, without depriving themselves of sexual freedom, they did not have to give up their careers or their jobs because of the arrival of an unwanted child. Or get into unfortunate marriages or have to face alone raising your baby.
The pill gave them control over their bodies and their lives. In 2014 fulfilled, nothing more and nothing less than, 53 years in the market.