Dr. Carl Djerassi, the Austrian-American chemist and writer who developed the oral birth control pill in 1951, died recently at the age of 91.
A statement on the Djerassi family website said Dr. Djerassi died in his home in San Francisco, Calif. from complications due to cancer. His family noted their father's life and career "included remarkable productivity and achievement in science, academia, and the arts, as well as personal tragedy in his expulsion from his childhood home following the Nazi Anschluss in 1938 and the death of his daughter in 1978."
Dr. Djerassi's enduring claim to fame was leading a research team in Mexico City that developed norethindrone or norethisterone, a synthetic molecule that was a key component of the first oral birth control pill. His leading role in The Pill has led to his being nicknamed "The Father of The Pill."
The Pill was a key factor that sparked the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s and gave impetus to women's right issues such as gender equality and contraception. It gave women more control over their fertility than they had ever had before.
The Pill has been improved since its discovery and is now commonly referred to as the "combined oral contraceptive pill" or COCP. Many existing birth control pills are a combination of an estrogen (estradiol) and a progestogen (progestin).
Pills are a very popular form of birth control and are currently used by more than 100 million women worldwide. The Pill was first approved for contraceptive use in the United States in 1960. It's currently used by some 12 million women in the United States.
Its popularity in other countries vary. For example, only one percent of women in Japan use The Pill.
Dr. Djerassi developed The Pill together with the late Mexican Luis Miramontes, a chemist, and Mexican-Hungarian George Rosenkranz, a chemist who's still alive. Their invention was first administered as an oral contraceptive to women by Dr. John Rock, an American gynecologist.
In his book, This Man's Pill, Dr. Djerassi told Yahoo News the invention of The Pill changed his life and made him more interested in how science affects society.