Technologies of Contraception and Abortion

Abstract

Soon to turn 60, the oral contraceptive pill still dominates histories of technology in the 'sexual revolution' and after. 1 'The pill' was revolutionary for many, though by no means all women in the West, but there have always been alternatives and looking globally yields a different picture. 2 The condom, intra-uterine device (IUD), surgical sterilization (male and female) and abortion were all transformed in the twentieth century, some more than once. Today, female sterilization (tubal ligation) and IUDs are the world's most commonly used technologies of contraception. The pill is in third place, followed closely by the condom. Long-acting hormonal injections are most frequently used in parts of Africa, male sterilization by vasectomy is unusually prevalent in Britain, and some one in five pregnancies worldwide end in induced abortion. Though contraceptive use has generally increased in recent decades, the disparity between rich and poor countries is striking: the former tend to use condoms and pills, the latter sterilization and IUDs. 3

The Duogynon controversy and ignorance production in post-thalidomide West Germany

“…For them, tactical ignorance about whether or not conception had occurred functioned as a resource. In this sense, the Duogynon ritual resembled the venerable practice of taking 'female pills' to induce ambiguous uterine bleeding and other practices of menstrual regulation (Murphy, 2012;Olszynko-Gryn, 2018a;Pavard, 2019;van de Walle and Renne, 2001). Many other women, however, had taken Duogynon at face value as a pregnancy test or treatment for amenorrhoea.…”

Cycles and circulation: a theme in the history of biology and medicine

“…7 ). Around the same time, female sex hormones were marketed as precise regulators of the menstrual cycle and, from 1960, as contraceptives (Olszynko-Gryn, 2018 ; Oudshoorn, 1994 ). In animal breeding the success of artificial insemination and embryo transfer also depended on the evaluation and manipulation of cycles (Hopwood, 2018b ).…”

Review Essay: Infertility in History and the History of Reproduction

“…Several chapters provide important cues, including Jesse Olszynko-Gryn's decentering of the pill from the global history of modern birth control technologies and Philippa Levine's exploration of the rhetorical and material significance of reproduction to empire as well as empire to reproduction. 89 Reproduction provides a big picture to think with and, indeed, against. Certainly, the convergence, but not homogenisation, that the transition to an increasingly globalised reproduction has wrought; but, also, the variety of generative (or other?)…”