Dr Pincus’s pill

Abstract

Abstract The birth-control pill is associated with the names of Gregory Pincus, John Rock, and Carl Djerassi—the physiologist, the doctor, and the organic chemist— and quite a number of others, for many man-years of patient research went into its development. Much of the initial impetus came from Margaret Sanger, who had sought to liberate women from the tyranny of unwanted pregnancies, and the philanthropist Katherine McCormick. The first success came in 1955, when Rock, a professor at Harvard Medical Scool and an expert on fertility, began cautiously testing the effect of the hormone analogue, progestin, on a plucky ‘cagefull’ of ovulating women, willing guinea-pigs all.