Table of Contents
1950: Margaret Sanger, founder of the America and Planned Parenthood Federation, meets biochemist Gregory Pincus and convinces him of the need for oral contraception. Sanger raises $ 50,000. The search begins. Already in 1956 Pincus himself, together with his colleagues Min Chuh Chang and John Rock, a Harvard gynecologist, conducted the first trial on 60 volunteer women. In the same year, Pincus successfully carried out a trial on 6,000 women from Puerto Rico and Haiti. Thus was born the story of “pill”, which has seen a constant improvement in the activity profile, understood in the sense of pregnancy prevention, and safety, with a progressive decrease in undesirable effects. All thanks to research.
What has changed for the woman
The history of the pill, in some ways, it represents a model for modern medicine. From the first oral contraceptives, we have progressively passed to products that are increasingly “neutral” in terms of metabolism, safer for women’s health, with ever greater contraceptive efficacy. And then, let’s retrace a story that, for Europe, begins in 1961, when the first contraceptive pill arrives. It was called Anovlar, this year it turns 60 and was the result of Schering’s German research – today Bayer. The first contraceptive immediately sparked a flurry of controversy, both social and scientific, so much so that in Italy it was approved only in 1967 for therapeutic purposes and became available in women for contraception only in 1976. Since then there has been a progressive reduction of the amount of estrogen used in the pills and also the type of hormone. In 1987 the “pill” contained almost a third less ethinyl estradiol, the estrogen used, compared to Anovlar. In 1989 it reached 30 micrograms, then 20 in 1997 and 15 in 2000, compared to 50 micrograms in the first pill. Over the years, progestogens have also changed, introducing into the pill products with fewer negative effects than the first ones used and capable of offering additional benefits such as the treatment of acne and hirsutism and heavy menstrual flows. Finally, with the first pill based on estradiol, natural estrogen, and dienogest, there was the definitive paradigm shift in oral contraception. This pill has shown high real-life efficacy, low impact on the woman’s body and benefits beyond contraception. Compared to the past, today the panorama of hormonal contraception is therefore very broad. This offers the woman the opportunity to choose, together with her gynecologist, the product that is most suitable for her, fully personalizing the contraceptive choice. Thanks to the development of research, today the specialist is able to give a specific answer to every woman who approaches contraception, case by case, according to specific needs.
Responsible contraception and information
Today women, at all ages of fertile life, therefore have the possibility of informed and responsible contraception. Unfortunately, however, it still often happens that this opportunity is not known or at least used, with the use of the so-called “Emergency contraception”. The figures show that in recent years, there has been a continuous growth in its use. In terms of sales, it went from just over half a million units in 2016 to an increase of 13.9% in 2017, a subsequent increase of 7.7% in 2018 and 1.8% in 2019, when more than 627,000 packs were sold. In 2020 alone, due to COVID, there was a decline of 6% compared to the previous year. But already in 2021 we are seeing signs of recovery in the use of emergency contraception which consists in taking a single pill within a few days of unprotected intercourse but which exposes the woman to the same progestogen at a dose of hormones about 15 times higher than regular oral contraceptives. “This situation is not acceptable today and it is necessary that women, from an early age, know their body better and are aware of the value of responsible contraception” she explains Franca Fruzzetti, president of the Italian Society of Contraception (SIC). The use of the hormonal contraception it is essential to ensure a peaceful sexual life from adolescence, to plan one’s reproductive life and to choose freely when to get pregnant. The pills available today mean that today every woman can take the one that suits her best.
1950: Margaret Sanger, founder of the America and Planned Parenthood Federation, meets biochemist Gregory Pincus and convinces him of the need for oral contraception. Sanger raises $ 50,000. The search begins. Already in 1956 Pincus himself, together with his colleagues Min Chuh Chang and John Rock, a Harvard gynecologist, conducted the first trial on 60 volunteer women. In the same year, Pincus successfully carried out a trial on 6,000 women from Puerto Rico and Haiti. Thus was born the story of “pill”, which has seen a constant improvement in the activity profile, understood in the sense of pregnancy prevention, and safety, with a progressive decrease in undesirable effects. All thanks to research.
What has changed for the woman
The history of the pill, in some ways, it represents a model for modern medicine. From the first oral contraceptives, we have progressively passed to products that are increasingly “neutral” in terms of metabolism, safer for women’s health, with ever greater contraceptive efficacy. And then, let’s retrace a story that, for Europe, begins in 1961, when the first contraceptive pill arrives. It was called Anovlar, this year it turns 60 and was the result of Schering’s German research – today Bayer. The first contraceptive immediately sparked a flurry of controversy, both social and scientific, so much so that in Italy it was approved only in 1967 for therapeutic purposes and became available in women for contraception only in 1976. Since then there has been a progressive reduction of the amount of estrogen used in the pills and also the type of hormone. In 1987 the “pill” contained almost a third less ethinyl estradiol, the estrogen used, compared to Anovlar. In 1989 it reached 30 micrograms, then 20 in 1997 and 15 in 2000, compared to 50 micrograms in the first pill. Over the years, progestogens have also changed, introducing into the pill products with fewer negative effects than the first ones used and capable of offering additional benefits such as the treatment of acne and hirsutism and heavy menstrual flows. Finally, with the first pill based on estradiol, natural estrogen, and dienogest, there was the definitive paradigm shift in oral contraception. This pill has shown high real-life efficacy, low impact on the woman’s body and benefits beyond contraception. Compared to the past, today the panorama of hormonal contraception is therefore very broad. This offers the woman the opportunity to choose, together with her gynecologist, the product that is most suitable for her, fully personalizing the contraceptive choice. Thanks to the development of research, today the specialist is able to give a specific answer to every woman who approaches contraception, case by case, according to specific needs.
Responsible contraception and information
Today women, at all ages of fertile life, therefore have the possibility of informed and responsible contraception. Unfortunately, however, it still often happens that this opportunity is not known or at least used, with the use of the so-called “Emergency contraception”. The figures show that in recent years, there has been a continuous growth in its use. In terms of sales, it went from just over half a million units in 2016 to an increase of 13.9% in 2017, a subsequent increase of 7.7% in 2018 and 1.8% in 2019, when more than 627,000 packs were sold. In 2020 alone, due to COVID, there was a decline of 6% compared to the previous year. But already in 2021 we are seeing signs of recovery in the use of emergency contraception which consists in taking a single pill within a few days of unprotected intercourse but which exposes the woman to the same progestogen at a dose of hormones about 15 times higher than regular oral contraceptives. “This situation is not acceptable today and it is necessary that women, from an early age, know their body better and are aware of the value of responsible contraception” she explains Franca Fruzzetti, president of the Italian Society of Contraception (SIC). The use of the hormonal contraception it is essential to ensure a peaceful sexual life from adolescence, to plan one’s reproductive life and to choose freely when to get pregnant. The pills available today mean that today every woman can take the one that suits her best.
1950: Margaret Sanger, founder of the America and Planned Parenthood Federation, meets biochemist Gregory Pincus and convinces him of the need for oral contraception. Sanger raises $ 50,000. The search begins. Already in 1956 Pincus himself, together with his colleagues Min Chuh Chang and John Rock, a Harvard gynecologist, conducted the first trial on 60 volunteer women. In the same year, Pincus successfully carried out a trial on 6,000 women from Puerto Rico and Haiti. Thus was born the story of “pill”, which has seen a constant improvement in the activity profile, understood in the sense of pregnancy prevention, and safety, with a progressive decrease in undesirable effects. All thanks to research.
What has changed for the woman
The history of the pill, in some ways, it represents a model for modern medicine. From the first oral contraceptives, we have progressively passed to products that are increasingly “neutral” in terms of metabolism, safer for women’s health, with ever greater contraceptive efficacy. And then, let’s retrace a story that, for Europe, begins in 1961, when the first contraceptive pill arrives. It was called Anovlar, this year it turns 60 and was the result of Schering’s German research – today Bayer. The first contraceptive immediately sparked a flurry of controversy, both social and scientific, so much so that in Italy it was approved only in 1967 for therapeutic purposes and became available in women for contraception only in 1976. Since then there has been a progressive reduction of the amount of estrogen used in the pills and also the type of hormone. In 1987 the “pill” contained almost a third less ethinyl estradiol, the estrogen used, compared to Anovlar. In 1989 it reached 30 micrograms, then 20 in 1997 and 15 in 2000, compared to 50 micrograms in the first pill. Over the years, progestogens have also changed, introducing into the pill products with fewer negative effects than the first ones used and capable of offering additional benefits such as the treatment of acne and hirsutism and heavy menstrual flows. Finally, with the first pill based on estradiol, natural estrogen, and dienogest, there was the definitive paradigm shift in oral contraception. This pill has shown high real-life efficacy, low impact on the woman’s body and benefits beyond contraception. Compared to the past, today the panorama of hormonal contraception is therefore very broad. This offers the woman the opportunity to choose, together with her gynecologist, the product that is most suitable for her, fully personalizing the contraceptive choice. Thanks to the development of research, today the specialist is able to give a specific answer to every woman who approaches contraception, case by case, according to specific needs.
Responsible contraception and information
Today women, at all ages of fertile life, therefore have the possibility of informed and responsible contraception. Unfortunately, however, it still often happens that this opportunity is not known or at least used, with the use of the so-called “Emergency contraception”. The figures show that in recent years, there has been a continuous growth in its use. In terms of sales, it went from just over half a million units in 2016 to an increase of 13.9% in 2017, a subsequent increase of 7.7% in 2018 and 1.8% in 2019, when more than 627,000 packs were sold. In 2020 alone, due to COVID, there was a decline of 6% compared to the previous year. But already in 2021 we are seeing signs of recovery in the use of emergency contraception which consists in taking a single pill within a few days of unprotected intercourse but which exposes the woman to the same progestogen at a dose of hormones about 15 times higher than regular oral contraceptives. “This situation is not acceptable today and it is necessary that women, from an early age, know their body better and are aware of the value of responsible contraception” she explains Franca Fruzzetti, president of the Italian Society of Contraception (SIC). The use of the hormonal contraception it is essential to ensure a peaceful sexual life from adolescence, to plan one’s reproductive life and to choose freely when to get pregnant. The pills available today mean that today every woman can take the one that suits her best.
1950: Margaret Sanger, founder of the America and Planned Parenthood Federation, meets biochemist Gregory Pincus and convinces him of the need for oral contraception. Sanger raises $ 50,000. The search begins. Already in 1956 Pincus himself, together with his colleagues Min Chuh Chang and John Rock, a Harvard gynecologist, conducted the first trial on 60 volunteer women. In the same year, Pincus successfully carried out a trial on 6,000 women from Puerto Rico and Haiti. Thus was born the story of “pill”, which has seen a constant improvement in the activity profile, understood in the sense of pregnancy prevention, and safety, with a progressive decrease in undesirable effects. All thanks to research.
What has changed for the woman
The history of the pill, in some ways, it represents a model for modern medicine. From the first oral contraceptives, we have progressively passed to products that are increasingly “neutral” in terms of metabolism, safer for women’s health, with ever greater contraceptive efficacy. And then, let’s retrace a story that, for Europe, begins in 1961, when the first contraceptive pill arrives. It was called Anovlar, this year it turns 60 and was the result of Schering’s German research – today Bayer. The first contraceptive immediately sparked a flurry of controversy, both social and scientific, so much so that in Italy it was approved only in 1967 for therapeutic purposes and became available in women for contraception only in 1976. Since then there has been a progressive reduction of the amount of estrogen used in the pills and also the type of hormone. In 1987 the “pill” contained almost a third less ethinyl estradiol, the estrogen used, compared to Anovlar. In 1989 it reached 30 micrograms, then 20 in 1997 and 15 in 2000, compared to 50 micrograms in the first pill. Over the years, progestogens have also changed, introducing into the pill products with fewer negative effects than the first ones used and capable of offering additional benefits such as the treatment of acne and hirsutism and heavy menstrual flows. Finally, with the first pill based on estradiol, natural estrogen, and dienogest, there was the definitive paradigm shift in oral contraception. This pill has shown high real-life efficacy, low impact on the woman’s body and benefits beyond contraception. Compared to the past, today the panorama of hormonal contraception is therefore very broad. This offers the woman the opportunity to choose, together with her gynecologist, the product that is most suitable for her, fully personalizing the contraceptive choice. Thanks to the development of research, today the specialist is able to give a specific answer to every woman who approaches contraception, case by case, according to specific needs.
Responsible contraception and information
Today women, at all ages of fertile life, therefore have the possibility of informed and responsible contraception. Unfortunately, however, it still often happens that this opportunity is not known or at least used, with the use of the so-called “Emergency contraception”. The figures show that in recent years, there has been a continuous growth in its use. In terms of sales, it went from just over half a million units in 2016 to an increase of 13.9% in 2017, a subsequent increase of 7.7% in 2018 and 1.8% in 2019, when more than 627,000 packs were sold. In 2020 alone, due to COVID, there was a decline of 6% compared to the previous year. But already in 2021 we are seeing signs of recovery in the use of emergency contraception which consists in taking a single pill within a few days of unprotected intercourse but which exposes the woman to the same progestogen at a dose of hormones about 15 times higher than regular oral contraceptives. “This situation is not acceptable today and it is necessary that women, from an early age, know their body better and are aware of the value of responsible contraception” she explains Franca Fruzzetti, president of the Italian Society of Contraception (SIC). The use of the hormonal contraception it is essential to ensure a peaceful sexual life from adolescence, to plan one’s reproductive life and to choose freely when to get pregnant. The pills available today mean that today every woman can take the one that suits her best.
