The Birth Control Pill

Most women have taken it, or know someone who has taken it. And as for men, at least have had a girlfriend who has taken it. But we never think of how it works, or where it comes from. Think about it...."How does a tiny pill prevent pregnancy?". Birth control methods date all the way back to 384 BC, when Aristotle was thought to be the first person to use chemicals such as cedar oil, lead ointment, or frankincense oil as spermicides. If you look at the timeline on my first website, you can read some pretty wacky ideas to prevent a baby. But not until the 1900s, we were able to come up with the idea of using hormones to "trick" the body to think it was already pregnant. Therefore, the female would not ovulate at all.

Margaret Sanger was the first one to test hormones on rabbits to prevent ovulation. She raised $150,000 in 1950 and was a lifelong advocate of women's rights. This was the beginning of the discovery.

Frank Colton developed the first oral contraceptive. It was named Envoid. He went into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Carl Djerassi was the inventor of the modern pill, what we take today to prevent preganancy. He also went into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

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SOME WEIRD FACTS OF HISTORY IN BIRTH CONTROL

-Did you know the pills that we take today actually work on chimpanzees??

-The oldest known condoms, around 1640, were made of fish intestines!! Yuck!

-The Egyptians around 1850 BC used crocodile dung as a contraceptive. And croc dung is pure alkaline!! What a risk!

-Charles Goodyear, yes as in Goodyear tires, patentted the first rubber condom.

-During WW1, condoms in the US finally became legal. And troops ignored the advice to abstain from sex.

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my sites

(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/index.html)

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