Despite the elegance and simplicity that we see in birth control today, birth control has a very diverse history. Birth control in a broad sense dates back to ancient times. In ancient China, mistresses would create a concoction of lead and mercury as a method of achieving sterility; in ancient Egypt, woman would insert into themselves a paste of honey, sodium carbonate, and crocodile dung prior to having sex; in Ancient Greece, women were advised to hold their breath during intercourse and sneeze after the act was complete; and in the Middle Ages in Europe, woman would tie weasel testicles around their necks or thighs as a means of contraception. Later on in the U.S., women would even use Coca-Cola or Lysol in an attempt to kill sperm.
Fun Fact: Lysol was advertised as a product for "complete feminine hygiene," and inexplicably advertised as a way for women to protect their marriages.
Methods of birth control haven't always been so pretty. In fact, up through the early 1900s, birth control was illegal in the United States. All changed when nurse Margaret Sanger came to the conclusion that getting pregnant and deciding how many children to raise should be a woman’s decision. This sparked Sanger’s revolutionary step in the field of oral contraception. So, with a desire to foster female empowerment, in 1916 Sanger erected the first birth control clinic in the United States, which prompted the beginning of her organization, Planned Parenthood, that would come to life in 1942. But Sanger’s idealized vision of a reliable oral contraceptive didn’t begin to come to fruition until the 1950s when she encountered mammalian reproduction expert Gregory Pincus, and later added to the team biologist and feminist Katharine McCormick, and fertility specialist John Rock. With much trial and error, the crew was able to create the pills that Sanger had dreamed of, though, obscenity laws became a major obstruction to further advancement. These laws prohibited advertising and limited the pool of volunteers who would be willing to test the pill. Consequently, the gang moved their focus for a bit to Puerto Rico, where they faced less legal restrictions. Here, they were able to conclude that the pill was 100% effective, despite side effects, and the first official version of “the pill” was set to the market in 1957. In a potentially life changing maneuver, “the pill” was officially approved by the FDA in 1960.
Although “the pill” was then able to be prescribed across the U.S., government regulations like the obscenity laws made getting access to the pill much more challenging. In fact, “the pill” was mainly available only to married couples until 1972 when the supreme court ruled in Eisenstadt v. Baird that all woman should have access to “the pill” regardless of marital status. Though, to this day, many states in the U.S. do not allow pharmacists to prescribe the pill over the counter.
Now that we have covered much of the history behind “the pill,” let’s work a bit into the scientific side of things. The way that the pill works is by targeting two of the main hormones produced in the ovaries… progesterone and estrogen. By using synthetic versions of these hormones, “the pill” is able to control the stages of the uterus’s menstrual cycle by altering the amount of each hormone present to mimic an idealized progression through the stages of menstruation. By doing this, the woman is able to become fully aware of where she is in the cycle of menstruation and control the occurrence of ovulation. For the purposes of contraception, this method is very effective because it enables the woman to have sex during a period of her cycle when she knows that an egg has a very low chance of becoming fertilized. In addition, “the pill” also thickens the mucus on the cervix, making sperm travel much harder. Though, the uses of the pill are much broader than contraception, and this is where the idea of “the pill” being “taboo” really starts to have an impact. Many women and girls do not use the pill for contraceptive purposes at all, or use the pill for other purposes in addition to contraception. Since the pill moderates hormone levels in the ovaries, it can be used as a means for regulating female hormones. This can be used to combat the hormonal imbalances that many women experience. For example, in the common case of PCOS, or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, “the pill” is used to regulate the hormones produced by the ovaries in order to minimize the impacts of higher levels of androgynous hormones that can be caused by ovarian cysts. In other cases, the pill can be used to combat severe symptoms of PMS, such as intense cramping, crippling uterine pain, and depression. And in many cases, women who have irregular (not exactly monthly) or frequently occuring (more than monthly) periods use birth control to make their periods occur on a monthly basis. And lastly, some women use birth control to combat severe cystic acne, which is often caused by hormonal stimuli.
All in all, “the pill” has played a monumental role in female (and male) history, and it is important to consider the reasons why it came about, the scientific potential it holds, and the impacts it has on the lives of women. When examining the political and societal reactions to “the pill,” it is vital to consider all of the implications that allowing free use and prohibiting use of the pill may have on the lives of all. Before considering “the pill” taboo, remember the historical alternatives of “the pill” that would inevitably return if it were to be removed from the public scene, and consider the implications beyond contraception that “the pill” has or could have for many women today.
Sources:
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/birth-control/birth-control-pill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenstadt_v._Baird
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_McCormick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ7fp8j1uUU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCYqLtmo670
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b0/67/07/b0670754311674bb0cec35b567c7afb4.jpg