When the birth control pill hit the market in 1960 it landed like a social bomb. Almost overnight, women gained the ability to separate sex from pregnancy and everything from feminism to patients’ rights centered on it. Find out all about its history in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: How did the pill change women's lives?
But not only that, they were also – these people were talking about how dangerous the side effects were with the pill. Sure. Hypertension, blood clots, heart attacks, high blood pressure, stroke, all of these things. And the women in the D.C. women's lib movement – including Alice Wolfson, were like, we've never heard this before in our lives. How did our doctors not tell us this?
Well, that was the back story is that none of the doctors were sharing this information because they were getting, and it's, you know, I think there's always been a problem. Not across the board, but with doctors and pharmaceutical companies pushing certain drugs over others.
But at the time, it was way worse than it is now. Like there was an actual... Yeah, there was a mentality among doctors, male doctors, who believed that if you... A woman was better off not knowing. You didn't want to get her all upset by giving her all the information.
They didn't even have side effects listed.
Right. And if you did tell her you ran the risk since women were so suggestible, she might develop a stroke just by thinking about it so much. So it was better off just not telling her about it. Yeah, exactly. That was the entire medical establishment at the time. Yeah. And so the pill went from this feminist icon in the 60s to by 1970 becoming an icon for white male sex. Medical patriarchy.
And how patients' informed consent was a paramount issue now. And it just took on this other role.
Well, and informed consent was literally born that day at that hearing. They finally heard an expert say – estrogen is to cancer, what fertilizer is to wheat. And Alice Wolfson stood up and started screaming. She was screaming, why are you using women as guinea pigs? Why are you letting drug companies murder us for profit and convenience? And it got a lot of media attention.
And really, the aftermath of those hearings is when this consumer health movement started. And they started informed consent. They started having to list side effects on bottles. And, you know, it wasn't an overnight thing, but it really changed the pharmaceutical industry forever.
Right. So the pill managed to accept this, I guess, iconography, right? It became a symbol for this other thing. Yeah. But still managed to keep on keeping on. Right. I think 87% of women between 18 and 49 in the U.S. followed those hearings once Alice Wolfson and the D.C. women's lib movement made it a national thing. And I think 18% of them stopped taking the pill as a result.
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Chapter 2: What was the historical context of the pill's introduction?
Everything from grief to heartbreak, career burnout, anxiety, all of the things that you would only talk about with your closest friends.
I spent the majority of my teenage years and my twenties just feeling absolutely terrified. I had a panic attack on a conference call.
Knowing that she had six months to live, I was no longer pretending that this was my best friend.
So this Mental Health Awareness Month, take that extra bit of care of yourself and your brain. Listen to The Psychology of Your 20s on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The chilling podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed, delves into the hidden truths behind 7M Films, the Shekinah Church, and the hold they had over members. Join host Jessica Acevedo, the executive producer of Netflix's explosive docuseries, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult, and Kalia Gray of 7M Films.
In the final episode, former member Melanie Lee talks about escaping the church and the hold of its leader, Robert Shinn.
That was the beginning of my closure. He's a scam artist.
Don't miss the powerful season finale, featuring part two of the Melanie Lee interview, which offers new perspectives on her time in the cult and a deeper understanding of her journey of recovery. All episodes out now. It's like life and death.
Yeah. And you don't know any better. You don't know you have that freedom because you've never had that freedom before.
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