Individuals who value sexual freedom find the thought of unplanned pregnancy unnerving. Moreover, having a baby one may find impossible to raise or lose a job for a night of sexual satisfaction has deterred many from the full enjoyment of sex. G.D. Searle had this incongruity in mind when it laid down the groundwork for manufacturing the first hormonal birth control pill in Chicago in 1960.
Created to control a burgeoning population, the pill, a potent combination of female hormones estrogen and progesterone synthetically produced in a controlled laboratory environment, has opened up a whole avenue of sexual liberation. First taken every day for 21 days, the pill’s simple action of preventing the release of an egg from the ovary during ovulation by maintaining a constant level of the aforementioned hormones has proven to be very effective in preventing pregnancy. Recommended to be taken daily with regularity, it has surprisingly lowered incidents of ovarian and uterine cancers as well as acne and irregular periods. The latest figures from the National Survey of Family Growth indicate that it is popularly used as a form of contraception by 14% of women aged 15-49 in the United States.
Living your life and enjoying sex in the
process if you choose should be the norm and not the exception. Getting
pregnant should not get in the way of your life goals. Taking the pill is a
no-brainer.
by Dr. Barry Verkauf, author of the book, Sex, Science, Society, and Reproduction: The Pill that changed America
