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Contraceptive: Development of the Pill

by Julian Rowe
Lemons, crocodiles, and pigs Birth control, in one form or another, has a long history. That well-known lover Casanova (17251798) is reputed to have used a lemon as a spermicide, with less than complete success. The ancient Egyptians used crocodile faeces. The sheath was probably introduced by Gabriel Fallopius, the famous Italian anatomist (15231562), but mainly as a prophylactic against venereal disease. Knowledge of human genital systems and their physiology, particularly the female system, remained rudimentary until the beginning of the 20th century. The most reliable form of birth control up to this point was simple abstinence. The population of the world in 1830 was 1 billion; by 1929 it had increased to 2 billion. However, in the period following the carnage of World War I, people were more concerned to repopulate than to advance new methods of birth control. There were legal constraints on birth control as well. US social reformer Margaret Sanger (18831966) opened the first birth control advisory clinic in 1916 in Brooklyn, New York, USA, but it was closed by the police, and Sanger was imprisoned. So, in addition to the necessary scientific advances, before successful birth control could be practised there had to be changes both in the law and in social awareness. Preventing ovulation The key step forward in scientific understanding came in the 1950s when US physiologist Gregory Pincus (1903 ) discovered that the steroid hormone progesterone, found in greater concentrations during pregnancy, is responsible for the prevention of ovulation at that time. The way had been paved in the 1920s when German physiologist Ludwig Haberlandt (18851932) conducted a crucial experiment. Starting from the idea that pregnancy somehow triggered the secretion of anti-ovulatory substances, he demonstrated that by transplanting the ovaries from pregnant rabbits and rats to non-pregnant females, he could induce a temporary sterility. He also found that simple ovarian extracts could achieve the same result. He suggested that specific hormones secreted during pregnancy were responsible. The modern study of sex hormones began with US endocrinologist Edgar Allen (18921943) who discovered oestrogen and showed experimentally that it induced the physiological changes normally found in the oestrous cycle. Allen and his colleagues extracted and crystallized a few milligrams of a hormone from the corpus luteum (part of the ovary) of the sow. To do this, they had to process the carcasses of several hundred sows. They suggested the name progesterone for the hormone. A commercial source of progesterone The story now moves to the Mexican jungle. In 1941, the US Bureau of Plant Industry, a branch of the Federal Bureau of Agronomy, received reports of the

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contraceptive properties of infusions used by the Indian women of Nevada. Like many indigenous tribes in different parts of the world, they made use of plant extracts. A US scientist, Russell Marker, found it difficult to pursue contraceptive studies in the prevailing climate of public opinion, and decided he would be better off in Mexico. Benefiting from local folklore, he investigated the wild yam as a possible source of progesterone. After collecting considerable quantities of this tuber in the jungle, Marker succeeded in a remarkably short space of time in synthesizing 2 kg/4.4 lb of progesterone. It is related that he appeared one day in the offices of a small Mexican pharmaceutical firm and, placing four full 1 lb jars of progesterone on the manager's desk, enquired if he was interested in the industrial manufacture of the hormone! The pill arrives There the matter rested, until the work of Gregory Pincus made it possible to conduct a series of trials, one among the women of Port-au-Prince in Haiti, and two in Puerto Rico. The trials gave conclusive results, and the firm of Searle, in Chicago, USA, was then able to produce the first contraceptive pill, Enovid. Progesterone is now known to play a vital role in maintaining the normal course of pregnancy. In high doses, however, it acts to prevent ovulation. By taking a contraceptive pill, in which the amounts of progesterone and oestrogen activity are carefully balanced, the female body behaves as if conception has occurred. Other types of pill operate only through progesterone activity. The population of the world in 1961 was 3 billion; in 1975 4 billion and in the year 2000 it will top 6 billion. Most of the staggering 2 billion increase in the 25 years preceding the millennium will happen in countries other than North America and Europe. The population is relatively stable in the developed countries where, in some instances, the birth rate has been cut by up to 40%. This is attributable both to advances in the scientific knowledge of birth and its control made during this century and, equally, to an increase in overall wealth. Related Articles: condom contraceptive Fallopius, Gabriel oestrogen Pill, the progesterone Copyright Helicon Publishing Ltd 2000. All rights reserved.

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