Women's Health Commons^™

Contraceptives And Common Sense: Conventional Methods Reconsidered, Judith Bruce, S. Bruce Schearer

Reproductive Health

Since the 1960s, the solution to contraception problems has been based increasingly on complexity, not simplicity. The oral contraceptive was developed in the late 1950s using newly discovered synthetic hormones that act in intricate ways on glands in the brain. Intrauterine devices were widely introduced in the 1960s in a host of scientifically engineered configurations that act inside a woman’s uterus. Nearly half of all married couples in the United States who use some method of contraception use either the pill or IUD. In examining emerging social trends and considering the special needs of some large groups for better contraceptives—adolescents, …