Pages

Saturday, May 9, 2015

BIRTH CONTROL PILL APPROVED

FDA APPROVED BIRTH CONTROL PILL 55 YEARS AGO TODAY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-five years ago today, May 9, 1960, the United States Food and Drug Administration gave its approval to the first commercially produced birth control pill, ENVOID 10.

The birth control pill was manufactured in Chicago by the G.D. Searle Company. Work on the birth control pill began in the early 1950s by biochemist Gregory Pincus and gynecologist John Rock.

The United States Library of Medicine describes birth control pills as...

"oral contraceptives...used to prevent pregnancy.  Estrogen and progestin are two female sex hormones.  Combinations of estrogen and progestin work by preventing ovulation (or) the release of eggs from the ovaries.

They also change the lining of the uterus to prevent pregnancy from developing and change the mucus at the cervix to prevent sperm from entering."

SOURCE

"Estrogen and progestin, Oral Contraceptives," Medline Plus, The United States Library of Medicine, http://www.nlm.nigh.gov/


"The Pill"