Health & biology · 1960

Oral contraceptive pill

A daily hormone pill gave women reliable, private control over pregnancy.

Gregory Pincus and John Rock developed Enovid, approved for contraception by the US FDA in 1960. Within five years more than six million American women used it, reshaping education, work and family size.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Hormones discovered 1902

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Maternal mortality in the UK since 1847 Latest: 9.84 deaths per 100,000 births (2020) Source: Our World in Data

World population Latest: 8.09B people (2023) Source: Our World in Data