The combined oral contraceptive pill often referred as the birth control pill or simply the pill is a combination of an estrogen and a progestin taken by mouth to inhibit normal female fertility.

Oral contraceptive pills-"THE PILLS"

Many famous names such as Margaret sanger, Frank Coton, Carl Djerassi , Russel E Marker is associated with “THE PILLS”. The decade of 1930s are called the decade of the sex hormones, during this period the structure of the sex hormones were identified and for the first time were put for use as drugs. But the cost of therapy was huge. Russell E Marker the professor at the Pennsylvania state University proposed a degradation reaction using sarsapogenin a plant hormone which resulted in a product the mimicked the structure of progesterone. This marked the beginning of the Mexican hormone industry in 1940s .The Mexican hormone industry produced hormones at a very low cost making the hormone therapy affordable.

Structure found by Rusell E Marker

Carl Djerassi is called the father of pills ,he produced the first combined oral contraceptive pill which was a combination of norethynodrel and mestranol and was given the proprietary name Enovid.His discovery was serendipitous, Norethynodrel was subsequently discovered to be contaminated with estrogen Mestranol an intermediate in their synthesis. This combination proved to be very effective as contraceptives during the first contraceptive trials in women in 1956.

Carl Djerassi- "Father of pills"

 The combined oral contraceptive pills became available to the general public between 1950- 1960s. In America the pill were available under the brand name Enovoid in July, 1961. In Canada combined oral contraceptive, as well as many other methods of birth control, was legalized in 1969.the most popular brand in Canada is Alesse. In Australia the combined oral contraceptive pills became available on January 1, 1961 under the brand name of Schering’s Anovlar. In Europe oral contraceptive pill were introduced for the first time in West Germany under the brand name Schering’s Anovlar. In Britain the pills entered the market on December 4, 1961, under the brand name Conovoid, later on in 1962 Schering’s Anovlar and Searle’s Conovoid –E were also available. In France the oral contraceptive pills were legalized in December 28, 1967.Since then it have been extensively used and accounts for 60% of the birth control. Surprisingly, when the whole of the world was extensively using the oral contraceptive pill Japan remained aloof. The Japan Medical Association did not approve the oral contraceptive pills for around 40 years from the time of its discovery. Two main objections raised by the association were safety concerns over the long term use of the pill and secondly the use of pills would lead to diminish use of condoms and thereby potentially increase sexually transmitted infection rates. However the pill was approved for use in September 1999, with the prescription guidelines that the pill users must visit a doctor every month’s for pelvic examinations and undergo test for sexually transmitted diseases unlike United states and Europe where an annual or bi-annual clinic visit is standard for pill prescribers.

"THE PILLS"- Schering's Anovlar

They are currently used by more than 100 million women worldwide and by almost 12 million women in the United States. Usage Varies widely by country, age, education, and the marital status: one quarter of women aged 16-49 in Great Britain currently use the pill compared to only 1% of women in Japan.