The Pill, introduced 50 years ago empowered women with control over their own fertility. The actual breakthrough was discovered 60 years ago in 1951 at a laboratory in Mexico City by research chemist, Carl Djerassi. An estimated 100 million women worldwide are using the Pill voluntarily. In the US, about 12 million women are on the Pill.
During an interview, Professor Djerassi shares this viewpoint on the future of female fertility.
“There are an enormous number of well-educated, proficient women who, when facing the biological clock, first pay attention to their professional ambitions,’ he says. Before they know it they are in their 30s. By the age of 35, they have lost 95 percent of their eggs, and the rest are ageing rapidly.
Sooner or later, in the next 20 years, more young people will freeze their eggs and gametes in their 20s, and bank them for later use. They will do away with the need for contraception by being sterilized, and withdraw their eggs and sperm from the bank when they are ready to have a child via IVF.”
Read more about Professor Carl Djerassi’s interview in London
The birth control pill was introduced to the public in the early 1960s. Birth control pills are synthetic hormones that mimic the way real estrogen and progestin works in a women’s body. The pill prevents ovulation – no new eggs are released by a women on the pill since her body is tricked into believing she is already pregnant. (excerpt from www.inventors.about.com)
