The beginning of biological intervention

60-year history pills

60 years ago, in 1954, after several tests on women (immediately banned in America), the first physiological contraceptive, an imperceptibly began its triumphal, but winding path-from the laboratory to Massachusetts, through Puerto-Rico clinics-into the world.

Now this tool has become ordinary, like aspirin, a name of the household name has been awarded, and information about it is easy to find on the Internet by simply dialing the word "tablet", only with a capital letter - Pill.

They continue to write about the pill, although in 1995 her complete biography, written by journalist Bernard Asbell, was released. The anniversaries of the tablets are accompanied by a stream of articles, and now on the way a new book about her is historian Ilane May. The reason for this attention, apparently, is that the tablet was the first invention at the threshold of a new era of scientific discoveries and experiments that biologists and journalists have already dubbed the era of bio -intervention. In 1995, Asbell wrote in the book “A tablet. The biography of the medicine that changed the world”: “The era began with the tablet when we learn to master our body in the most complete sense of the word. 60 years ago, science for the first time, for our convenience and pleasure, changed the functions of the human reproductive system.”

The Greeks annually celebrated the return of the Persephons - the goddesses of Spring - the holidays with "Tesmophias", which were not allowed by men. Four plants were symbols of the holiday: grenade, mint, pine and "chastity tree" - all that have contraceptives

From the point of view of medicine, the 60-year history of pills is only a short period in the thorny history of physiological contraceptives. Its oldest documented beginning is in the heritage of the Aztecs. The oldest legendary - in the myth of the Persephone, which, in order not to suffer from its kidnapper, was at a pomegranate bones. In the article “Tablet. The first 2500 years”, published by the American Federation of control over birth rate, there is an example: “The Greeks annually celebrated the return of the Persephons - the goddesses of spring - the holidays“ Tesmophores ”, which were not allowed by men. Four plants were symbols of the holiday: grenades, mint, pine and“ chastity tree ” - all that have contraceptive properties. In ancient Libya and North Africa, the medicinal plant "Sylphius" served as as much as silver, despite the price that by the 4th century, the papaya was completely erased (in 1993, the British scientists really found enzymes that prevent pregnancy). (Future Papa John 21st) wrote the work of the Treasure of the Poornesses-about medicinal and contraceptive plants.

So the creators of the pill had to start all over again. True, those scientists who were the first to create hormonal chemical compounds that allowed the tablet did not mean it at all, asbell writes in the book “Tablet. Biography of the drug that changed the world”: “In 1942, Russell marker - an unknown chemist - came on a creaky regular river in the deaf tropics of Mexico. Several months, dying from dying from dying from dying. He dug up the heavy smelly roots of the Cabeza Di -Nagro plant, while he was in the same place, on the spot, he had three bottles of the Systoron hormone (on the basis of which the tablet was later created) There was no creation of a contraceptive in thoughts, it fought over the manufacture of cheap steroids - drugs for rheumatoid arthritis.

There is a person in Mexico

In the history of pills, Asbell believes, it is difficult to answer the question of who invented it and why. “In the first decade of its existence,” he writes, “a religion gave the answer: the devil brought it to life in order to guess the Lord's plan. In the second decade, the tablet began to bring income, but, on the other hand, its unpleasant side effects opened, and the answer changed: the tablet - the tablet -

Neither pharmaceutical firms nor universities were ready for risk, while in society it prevailed that control over the birth rate is immoral and dangerous. And only two women decided to put their enthusiasm, energy, connection and influence into this enterprise

The result of the greed of pharmaceutical firms and purchased doctors. Her side effects have been raised by doubts of the third decade: “Why,” the question was heard, “should a woman be protected and take on? Where is the tablet for men?” Only then began to look for inventors and found five, including biologist George Pinkus and Gynecologist John Rock. But the main characters (more precisely, the heroines) were forgotten. Professor of History of the University of Minnesota Ilane May says that in the history of manufacturing tablets, despite the participation of wonderful scientists and doctors, two women played a decisive role in the eighth ten: Margaret Sanger and Katherine McCormik. The idea of a reliable contraceptive was worn in the air, ”says May,“ but neither pharmaceutical firms nor universities were ready for risk, while in society it prevailed that control over the birth rate is immoral and dangerous. And only two women decided to put their enthusiasm, energy, communications and influence into this enterprise, and Katherine McCormic was also money.

Margaret Signer was a fighter of the army of feminism. Shocked once for all the death of the mother, which was killed by endless birth, she did not stop at any dangers (including arrests and prison) to facilitate female fate. Due to the obsession with public affairs, contemporaries imagined Margaret Signer with a blue stocking and an old maid. Meanwhile, her love novels were calculated by dozens, she had two sons, and when she was 42 years old, a 60-year-old businessman fell in love with her that he threw a family and married her.

Katherine McCormic was a rich beauty. One of the future creators of the pill - Dr. John Rock - wrote about her: "She is rich like a crop. Her lawyer told me that she was not able to spend even interest on the percent of her capital." Katherine graduated from the Boston Technological Institute and was too educated to consider contraceptives to the devil's temptation.

Signer and McCormik met in 1951 and soon invited George Pinkus-Massachusetts biologist with a rather sinister reputation for lunch in the New York restaurant. Once, Pinkus managed to achieve that the ovum of the rabbit began to share in the test tube - as in the uterus. The biologist said to journalists that he did not plan to grow babies in test tubes, but the typesetters who prepared the material for the newspaper gained a phrase without denial. Pinkus had the nickname "American Count Frankenstein." Lunch with Pinkus in the winter of 1951 (using medical terms) can be considered the day of conception of the tablet. This episode is in Asbella’s book “Tablet. The biography of the medicine that changed the world”: “The ladies asked the biologist, whether it is possible in principle to make a reliable contraceptive, which would finally replace all the mechanical: diaphragms, jelly, condoms and hated by male Koitus Intepens. He could have become the basis of such a pill, but it is obtained from urine of pregnant women or animal females, which explains its small amount and high cost, “True, there is one person in Mexico, who seems to have learned to get it from plants,” said Pinkus, vaguely remembering the article by Russell Marker. Such amounts: only to start developments, you need more than a hundred thousand.

Remembering the marker, it must be added that about the Cabesa de Negro plant, which has become a source of progesterone (and tablets), the chemist was informed by the Japanese biologist a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor (another detective story in history).

A woman freed from the "fear" of pregnancy

Now we can say that from a medical point of view, a tablet created by George Pinkus and proven by Dr. John Rock, proven as an almost impeccable remedy for patients. Its side effects have been eliminated in the first 10 years - using a dosage. The problematic (and at the same time triumphal) became its social consequences. Professor of History University, Minnesota, Ilane May, says that the tablet gave rise to many myths and versions: many consider it the cause of the sexual revolution of the 60s, the cause of the emancipation of women. “In my opinion,” the professor notes, “she only contributed to these social and cultural processes. Their main engine was the feminist movement. But one way or another, it was the tablet that was played by one very significant role - it became the only reliable contraceptive that is completely under the control of the woman.”

In 1960, the tablet was legalized, and the Americans got the opportunity to completely separate sex from childbirth. They could plan their education and a career and not find themselves in a situation where everything collapses due to the appearance of an unplanned child.

In the past 50 years, a whole first -aid kit of hormonal products for women has appeared in the world ... and zero! Not a single one! For men

Many in America see the woman in this new role only evidence of fair social equality, but Harvard doctor Robert Kintner already warned in the 60s about a possible psychological reaction to such changes: “If a woman who is freed from fear of pregnancy will take on the initiative in sex,” he wrote, “this may come into conflict with male nature and in extreme cases even to impotence.” One of the young manufacturers of the tablet recalled that he had dedicated his mother to his work, and she simply told him: "A dangerous thing. If the girls are free from fear of pregnancy and leaving them only the pleasure of sex, then many of them will go along the bad road." "Bad Road" - what is it? Just outdated hypocritical views of previous generations or danger, as they said then, "sexual anarchy"? Historian Ilane May wrote in the article “Promises that the tablet could not keep”: “Many psychologists predicted that the tablet, having freed the spouses from the fear of unwanted pregnancy, will improve their sexual relations so much that it will minimize divorces. In reality in the 60s and 70s, the annual number of divorces in America almost tripled (from 9 to every thousand Marriages-there were hopes that the tablet would reduce the number of pregnancies in teenage girls and unlucky women.

- Professor May, but did the population increase the population reduce?

-In the 50-60s, American politicians, and the creators themselves were preoccupied with the rapid growth of the population in developing countries. Dr. John Rock wrote that "the main danger to the world and prosperity on Earth does not come from atomic energy, but from sexual." There was a Cold War, and many were afraid that high birth rate in third world countries would lead to the impoverishment of the population, which would be easier to seduce into communism. The creators of the tablet hoped that the reduction of families would allow residents of these countries to gain prosperity and introduce a market economy and democracy. And then these countries will enter the orbit of the West, not the Soviet Union. These calculations, of course, did not work. No medical and technological innovation could control the population growth. The changes began only with the introduction of female education. The woman gained weight in the family and was able to make decisions herself.

- But during this time there was a distortion into the growth of the population. In developing countries, it remained high, and in America has sharply decreased.

- Yes, and not only in America, but also in Europe. And this became a problem that bothers many.

- How popular is the tablet in the world now?

- She is still in demand. But now there are already a lot of new types of hormonal contraceptives: tablets and long -term injections. Moreover, you can make an injection for three months, you can - for six months. In the past 50 years, a whole first -aid kit of hormonal products for women has appeared in the world ... and zero! Not a single one! For men. It turned out that making such a tool is much more difficult than for women, it is associated with dangers for both potency and health of men. But in general, work on a male tablet continues, and it is possible that it will appear soon.

“In the past 60 years,” writes the biographer of Asbello tablets, “we crossed the threshold of the era for which we have not prepared the past-the era of biological intervention ... In our manipulations with the human reproductive system, we have reached the frightening progress-the possibility of excluding a man from the process of continuing the genus. Now there is only a 42-year-old woman in the northern dacha. We already determine the gender of the fruit in the womb of the mother, and the clinic in London is already offering the gender of the future child for a thousand dollars.

Laws, morality, ethical norms do not keep up with medicine. Science and technology replace evolution. And new dangers from new inventions are combined with complete inability to do without these inventions. At the end of the book “Tablet. The biography of the medicine that has changed the world” its author Bernard Asbell writes: “Sooner or later, the moment will come when humanity faces the need to abandon the next gift of science - for its own salvation.”