Originally published March 30, 2010. Updated October 6, 2026, with a more complete history of the birth control pill, its development and FDA approval.
Few medications have had as profound a social impact as the birth control pill.
When the first oral contraceptive was approved in the United States in 1960, it gave women access to a highly effective form of birth control that could be used privately and independently of sexual activity. In the decades that followed, the pill became closely associated with changing attitudes toward sex, family planning, education and women’s participation in the workforce.
But no one person invented the pill. Its development involved decades of hormone research and the work of scientists, physicians, birth control advocates and financial supporters.
Who Invented the Birth Control Pill?
Several people played key roles in developing oral contraception.
Margaret Sanger, a longtime advocate for birth control, pushed for the development of a simple contraceptive that women could control themselves.
She helped connect reproductive biologist Gregory Pincus with Katharine Dexter McCormick, a biologist, women’s rights advocate and philanthropist who provided much of the funding needed for the research.
Pincus studied whether synthetic hormones could suppress ovulation.
Gynecologist John Rock had also been studying estrogen and progestins in women as part of his fertility research. Pincus and Rock later collaborated on human trials of hormonal contraception.
Chemist Carl Djerassi and other researchers working in Mexico had meanwhile helped develop synthetic progestins that could be taken orally, another essential scientific step toward creating a practical birth control pill.
Early Human Trials
Early human studies began in Massachusetts in the mid-1950s.
Larger contraceptive trials began in Puerto Rico in 1956, led by researchers including Pincus, Rock, Celso-Ramón García and Edris Rice-Wray.
The trials showed that the hormonal formulation could effectively suppress ovulation, but they also raised ethical questions that researchers still examine today. Many of the women participating were given high-dose formulations, and the standards for informed consent and clinical research were very different from those required today.
When Was the Birth Control Pill Approved?
The first birth control pill was sold under the name Enovid.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration first approved Enovid in 1957 for menstrual disorders and infertility. It was not yet officially approved as contraception.
On May 9, 1960, the FDA approved Enovid specifically as an oral contraceptive, making it the first birth control pill approved in the United States.
Its introduction marked a major change in reproductive healthcare. For the first time, women had access to a highly effective contraceptive that could be taken privately and did not need to be used at the time of intercourse.
What Was in the First Birth Control Pill?
Enovid contained two synthetic hormones: the progestin norethynodrel and the estrogen mestranol.
Interestingly, estrogen was not originally intended to be an important component of the formulation. Researchers discovered that preparations containing estrogen provided better cycle control and reduced breakthrough bleeding.
The first commercial pills contained substantially higher hormone doses than most modern birth control pills.
Early Side Effects and Safety Concerns
The original pill was effective, but its high hormone doses also caused significant side effects.
Early users reported problems including nausea, headaches, breast tenderness and changes in bleeding. More serious concerns emerged when oral contraceptives were linked to an increased risk of blood clots.
Those risks led researchers and drug manufacturers to develop formulations containing much lower doses of estrogen and different types of progestins.
Modern birth control pills generally contain far lower hormone doses than Enovid.
The Pill and Women’s Lives
The pill’s significance went well beyond contraception.
Because women could more reliably control whether and when they became pregnant, oral contraception became closely connected with broader changes in women’s education, employment, marriage and family planning.
Its introduction also coincided with major legal battles over access to contraception in the United States.
In Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down restrictions on contraception for married couples. It later extended access to unmarried people.
By that time, millions of American women were already using the pill.
How Has the Birth Control Pill Changed?
Today’s birth control pills are based on the same fundamental concept—using hormones to prevent pregnancy—but their formulations have changed considerably.
Most combination pills contain estrogen and a progestin, while progestin-only pills contain no estrogen.
Modern pills generally use substantially lower hormone doses than the earliest formulations, and numerous formulations are now available to accommodate different medical needs, side effects and preferences.
The pill has also come to be used for reasons beyond contraception, including management of heavy or painful periods, acne and certain hormone-related conditions.
The Bottom Line
The birth control pill was not the creation of a single scientist. It emerged from decades of reproductive research and the combined work of advocates Margaret Sanger and Katharine McCormick, researchers Gregory Pincus and John Rock, chemists including Carl Djerassi, and many other scientists and clinical researchers.
FDA approval of Enovid as a contraceptive in 1960 transformed birth control and reproductive healthcare. More than six decades later, oral contraceptives remain an important contraceptive option, although today’s pills contain much lower hormone doses and offer far more choices than the original formulation.
