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Science Friday > Archives > 2001 > July > July 20, 2001:

Hour Two: History and Future of Contraception

In 1961, the first birth control pills went on sale in Great Britain. Forty years later, the pill remains a popular form of birth control, used by some 100 million women worldwide. In this hour of Sceince Friday we'll take a look at the history and future of contraception on the 40th anniversary of the pill. Are there new contraceptives in the pipeline? And will a new male contraceptive hit the shelves anytime soon?

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Guests:
Lara V. Marks
Author, "Sexual Chemistry: a History of the Contraceptive Pill" (2001, Yale University Press)
Historian of Medicine
Cambridge University
Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Dr. Paul Blumenthal
Associate Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Johns Hopkins University Medical School
Baltimore, Maryland

Andrea Tone
Author, "Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America" (2001, Hill and Wang)
Associate Professor, History
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia

Dr. William Bremner
Chairman, Department of Medicine
Director, Population Research Center
University of Washington School of Medicine
Seattle, Washington

Books/Articles Discussed:

"Sexual Chemistry: a History of the Contraceptive Pill," by Lara V. Marks. Yale University Press, 2001. "Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America," by Andrea TOne. Hill and Wang, 2001. (find more SciFri books here)

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Related Links:
Entrez-PubMed: Contraceptive Devices, Female
Entrez-PubMed: Contraceptive Devices, Male
SALON Features: Contraceptive Museum
JAMA Women's Health Information Center - Contraception
WHO: reproductive health home page
CDC's Reproductive Health Information Source
MEDLINEplus: Birth Control/Contraception
Birth Control Methods

This segment produced by: Annette Heist
Web Producer: Charles Bergquist