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Where did the pill come from – and how has it changed our lives?

Photo credit: Katie Wilde - Hearst Owned
Photo credit: Katie Wilde - Hearst Owned

In this day and age, it's a lot more accepted to admit that we love talking about sex – but what about contraception? Why does it still sometimes feel like there's a bit of a stigma when it comes to protecting ourselves from STIs and falling pregnant?

It's a funny one, given that trying to avoid having a baby isn’t exactly a modern concept – in fact (history lesson incoming!), in ancient Egypt, around 1850 BC, women used honey, acacia leaves and even lint to block sperm, while in the 17th century half a lemon was made into a cap and inserted into the vagina (ouch?).

Thankfully, we’ve come a long, long way since then – and to celebrate the pill's 60th birthday, here’s a rundown of exactly how we got to the place we are today: which is that there are a plethora of options for cis females to prevent pregnancy (but still very few for men).

We're lucky that along with the pill, there are also more non-hormonal options available than ever before too, but it was definitely that tiny foil packet that changed the game and levelled the playing field, contributing massively to equality amongst the sexes.

To mark 60 years of the pill (and because it's always good to look back to realise how far we've come, and what the future might still hold), here's a birth control timeline to dive into...

1564: The earliest mention of condoms in medical literature by anatomist Gabriele Falloppio who described a linen sheath designed to halt transmission of syphilis.

1861: The Offences Against the Person Act means that performing an abortion or trying to self-abort risked a sentence of life imprisonment: "Every woman, being with child, who, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, shall unlawfully administer to herself any poison... or unlawfully use any instrument... shall be liable ... to be kept in penal servitude for life."

1915: The London Rubber Company (now Durex!) launched to sell condoms and barber supplies.

1921: Marie Stopes opened the first ever birth-control clinic in the UK, in north London. It was called 'the Mothers' Clinic for Constructive Birth Control' and was free for all married women to find out about birth-control methods and reproductive health.

1930: The Church of England ruled that birth control could be used by married couples. While Mothers’ Clinics opened in other locations including Leeds, Aberdeen, Belfast, Cardiff and Swansea.

1938: A doctor agreed to perform an abortion on a 14-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted by five British officers in the Royal Horse Guards. He was later prosecuted but argued that the abortion was necessary on mental health grounds. The judge agreed, which set a new precedent – although the law wouldn't be changed until decades later.

1961: The pill is launched! But only for married women.

1967: The pill becomes available for single women, when parliament passed the 'NHS Family Planning Act'. By this point, 12.5 million women all over the world were taking it. Which was liberating – it saw improvements to health, career progression and allowed us to have autonomy over our own lives and bodies. It's still seen as the biggest contributor towards gender equality to date.

The Abortion Act also made abortion legal in England, Scotland and Wales – although only under certain conditions, as it did not get rid of the Offences Against The Person Act. This means that abortion is technically a criminal offence, if it's not signed off by two doctors and carried out in certain places, for example a licensed clinic.

1970: An advert with a photograph of a pregnant man asked, “Would you be more careful if it was you that got pregnant?” challenging men to take responsibility too when having casual sex.

1972: In Cosmopolitan's first ever issue, we interviewed broadcaster Micheal Parkinson and he revealed he got a vasectomy so his wife Mary didn’t have to take the pill anymore, which he said affected her “physically and psychologically.”

Photo credit: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY - Getty Images
Photo credit: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY - Getty Images

1976: Copper IUDs are shown to be highly effective when used as emergency contraception, up to five days after the earliest estimated day of ovulation.

1984: The first emergency contraception (AKA morning after pill) is launched in the UK.

1995: A health scare over thrombosis caused a huge number of women to stop taking the pill, meaning there was an increase in pregnancies and abortions. (A report in 2000 concluded the scare was completely unfounded).

2001: The morning after pill is now available to buy over the counter in pharmacies.

2013: Fertility tracking app Natural Cycles launched – it was also granted medical approval to be used as contraception in the European Union in 2017, which caused much controversy – we spoke to some of the women who experienced unwanted pregnancies.

2015: The morning after pill is licensed for under-16s, meaning it can be given to any woman who needs it in Europe.

2018: Cosmopolitan UK launched The Big Cosmopolitan Contraception Survey alongside morning after pill brand, ellaOne. We surveyed more than 7,000 readers and found that nearly 70% had had unprotected sex at least once, 76% thought contraception wasn’t spoken about enough and 24% had taken the morning after pill more than twice.

2019: Abortion is decriminalised in Northern Ireland at midnight on Monday 21 October, meaning it's possible to seek an abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. This means The Offences Against the Person Act has been overturned in Northern Ireland. (Later abortions are permitted only under certain circumstances such as the foetus being the result of a rape, or displaying fatal abnormalities).

2020: Because of the pandemic, governments in England, Scotland and Wales (temporarily) relaxed abortion rules. In every part of the UK, except for Northern Ireland, people in early pregnancy can take abortion pills – 'pills by post' – at home following a telephone consultation. There are calls to make this change permanent.

2021: The mini pill is now available to buy over the counter from pharmacies. Of course, the convenience of this comes at a cost as there are many women who won't be able to afford it – and, of course, should we really have to pay for it?

And now, as we look towards the future, it seems the development of contraception could go a couple of ways. There is, of course, the elusive male pill – which was first proposed back in 1957! – and, well, it's still in trial, and probably won't be available for at least another decade. It's recently been proven to be effective, with very few side effects, so there's hope – especially as there are currently only two options for people with penises: condoms or vasectomies. There's also the impending arrival of Phexxi to the UK, a non-hormonal gel that alters the pH of the vagina to make it inhospitable to sperm by making it more acidic. It launched in the US earlier this year. “It’s insane that women have not had an option like this before now,” said Saundra Pelletier, chief executive officer of Evofem, the company behind Phexxi. When it launched, the pill was liberating for women, and although that's worth celebrating in itself, there's always work to be done...

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